New Year’s Message

New Year’s is my favorite holiday!

I love the idea of new beginnings. I love turning the page on whatever happened last year while ushering in the limitless possibilities of the coming year. I love the idea that whatever challenges held you back last year, once the new year starts all of that feels like it’s in the past.

And the same goes for the real estate market. Last year is old news. With the turning of the page on the calendar, the holidays are over and a new real estate cycle begins. The market frenzy of last spring is behind us, along with the stale market of last fall. Now that the storms are behind us as well, and I am looking out my office window at a beautiful sunny day, today feels like the first day of the new cycle…so let’s talk about it.

Each year, the North Bay housing inventory is essentially bought up throughout late fall and early winter. With so few new listings coming on the market during that time, when we get to early January there are very few homes out there for sale. New listing inventory starts to really pick up around the middle of February, but listing inventory will really start to accelerate as we get closer to spring.

Currently interest rates are sitting at just below 6.5% for a 30-year fixed loan, and paying to buy down the rate can get a buyer’s interest rate down to closer to 5.5%. This is a significant drop from the over 7% rates we were seeing last October.

Median prices around the North Bay dropped significantly over the last month of the year. Prices to start 2023 are actually very close to where they were at the beginning of 2022. But, with the lack of available listing inventory, as long as interest rates remain steady, we predict that North Bay housing prices will remain strong throughout the first half of 2023.

North Bay Median Price Trends