🏠💰Benton County New Home Prices Jump but Still Offer Value

🏡 Key Highlights

• New Home Prices: +15% YoY (median $311,900)

• Existing Home Prices: +3.2% YoY (median $405,000)

• Residential Homes Sold: -1.2% YoY (624 vs. 632)

• October Real Estate Activity: Real estate filings +4.5% YoY

Market Overview & Notes

Total home sales were nearly identical to last year. The median price of a new home jumped significantly, but still remains $95,000 below the median existing home price.

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🏠 Existing Home Sales

• 🏡 Volume – Existing homes sold have remained nearly flat with 2023 numbers.

• 💰 Prices – Median price up +3.2%. For context, the national median price of a home is $426,800.

🏗️New Home Sales

• 💵 Prices Hit Record Highs - Median home prices jumped +15%. Despite the large increase in median price, new homes remain a bargain compared to existing homes.

• 📉 Activity Levels - New homes sold dropped -4%. Overall home sales were up slightly so the sales mix skewed heavier to existing homes in October.

Mortgage Activity

• 📈 Upward Trends - Mortgage filings +7.3% YoY.

• 💰% 30 Year Mortgage - The average 30 year is 6.36%.

• 🏛️💵 10-Year Treasury - The 10 year rate is 4.08% and down slightly from last week.

📰Closing & Market News

🏛️ Fed Rate Decision - Two weeks ago there was a 75% chance the Fed was going to cut 25bps. Last week, those odds turned into a coin flip. This week, it now looks unlikely that the Fed will cut rates at the December 9th meeting. There is only a 30% chance that the Fed will drop 25bps.

The market swing is surprising. Just a couple of weeks ago the government shutdown, reduced flights, and questions around employment made a rate reduction seem like a foregone conclusion. Inflation fears and a better than expected jobs report are leading the market to believe a rate cut is off the table.

💼📊Jobs Report - Jobs data is back online after the shutdown. The September jobs report showed employers adding 119,000 jobs versus expectations of 50,000 additional jobs. While the job growth is great news for the economy it allows the Fed to focus more on the inflation side of their mandate. Higher rates for longer will be back on the table if jobs data stays strong.

🤖🫧AI Bubble - This story is picking up steam. Investment in AI is estimated to be responsible for 92% of our GDP growth in the first half of the year. Without this spending, our economic outlook would be dramatically different. OpenAI has announced up to $1.4 trillion in long-term infrastructure commitments. Questions are being asked about how OpenAI plans to pay for these commitments but there’s not a clear path to do so.

This is relevant to real estate as a bad day in the stock market could lead to better mortgage rates. When investors flee for safety they move to bonds and treasuries which can lead mortgage rates lower. Keep an eye on the market and real estate may be the best place to ride out the upcoming turbulence.

Smart Tools for Savvy Agents

📊 AI Reports - Monthly data reports that give you the information edge you need to outpace the competition.  

🔢 Calculators - Closing costs made simple with the most accurate and powerful estimator available.

📞 Contacts - Need a real estate expert? Connect directly with our team of closers here.

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