COLOMBIA — Colombia’s red-hot housing market has cooled to milder temperatures this summer, according to local realtors.
Overall, the market has improved lives for buyers as homes have been made available more time on the market and some bargaining space has returned, according to Olivia Cooley, who owns her own real estate firm in Armo. became more tolerable.
Potential buyers may not need to bid higher than the asking price or agree to cover the difference between the selling price and the valuation, Cooley said.
Over the past two years, the Midland housing market has tilted heavily toward the seller side, with few homes available for bid and multiple bids being submitted quickly.
“It’s actually going backwards in favor of buyers,” she said.
This change is reflected in the number of homes in the Gran Colombia market, called current inventory. As recently as February, he had fewer than 1,400 cases in areas that included nearby Richland and Lexington counties, as well as Kershaw and Fairfield counties, according to SC Realtors. There are now over 1,900.
That’s still not a huge number by historical standards, said Taylor Oxendin, co-chief executive of the Central Carolina Association of Realtors. But it shows there is more balance in the market now than during most of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The market is now closer to the 2019 housing market than it has been at the breakneck pace of the past two years, Oxendine said.
According to Karen Yip, owner of Yip Premier Real Estate in Colombia, buyers have some time to ponder and negotiate their options. Bids for homes no longer have to be higher than the asking price, as they normally are, she said.
Cooley said those in the Midlands who sell homes have struggled to adapt to the new market.
They’ve heard that they received a ton of offers shortly after sellers put their homes up for sale earlier this year, but that’s not true for most of this summer. Not really,” Cooley said.
Some sellers have been forced to cut prices after weeks on the market, which is a very rare move in the past two years, Cooley said.
SC Realtors June data shows homes are still selling at high prices close to historical standards. The median selling price was $282,000, up 20% from the same month in 2021.
One factor in the slowdown was that mortgage rates rose, especially early in the summer, but have calmed down recently. The average interest rate on a 30-year loan fell below 5% in the first week of August, according to federally backed mortgage firm Freddie Mac.
Stories of interest rates and high inflation in the news helped cool unsustainable markets. Yip calls this shift a “deceleration” rather than a recession.
The pace of the housing market auto race earlier this year has become more sustainable, Yip said. “Things are starting to get back to speed limits.”