We have finally seen the tide start to turn regarding economic policy. At the September Fed meeting, they decided to lower interest rates by 50 basis points, which eased monetary policy for the first time in 4 years. While we all know this leads to lower borrowing costs (and maybe some refinancing opportunities, new buyers entering the market, and sellers being enticed to move), I’m most excited about the opportunities lower rates present to stimulate new construction and enable builders to borrow money at a lower cost, enticing them to invest more. Increased new construction is needed to help make up for many years of underbuilding since the credit crisis.

Let’s take a look at Q3 from a single-family perspective. Sales prices rose again in 2024, continuing to be at all-time highs! Slide 1 shows that the average sales price rose 5.31% to $822,208 while the median sales price rose 4.71% to $654,450. However, the great news is that we seem to have bottomed out on the number of units sold as we have seen a 4.27% increase compared with 2023. We had been in a three-year decline. Average days to offer (DTO) rose to 20, slightly up from 19 in 2023, which must mean that inventory is on the rise as well.

You can see on slide 2 that our averaged inventory for Q3 was up to 5,395, which is the highest since 2022. We are making progress with having more homes available, but we are still not there yet. You can see on slide 3 that weekly listing activity outpaced 2023 every week of the quarter, which is great news for a low-inventory market. And on slide 5, you see sale-to-list price ratio at 101.11% (down from 101.97% in 2023). Anything above 100% shows that multiple offers still exist and are vibrant in many markets.

What is very interesting is that on slide 6, you will see that the most new listings for the quarter came in September, compared with July and August. This tells us that maybe there was anticipation for the Fed’s rate cuts and there was a gearing up for an earlier fall market this year. It looks like even though prices still have been rising, the market may be cooling. However, it has continued to be a great seller’s market compared to years past. For example, average DTO for Q3 was the highest since 2020. At 24 days, it still indicates a very healthy market for sellers even though it has slowed compared with 16, 21, and 20 for the previous three Septembers.

It is great to see more homes available for sale, units sold on the rise, and overall market volume increasing, and it will be very interesting to see what effects the Fed's rate cuts will have on buyer activity and pricing as we move into Q4.