How is the housing market at the end of 2024? What are the hopes for next year?

And as we closeout 2024, how is it in the housing market right now and what are the hopes for the year ahead? Eddie Kompos is here with us to answer these questions. He's from REMAX, one of the top realtors in Northwest Ohio. I'm sorry, the best in Northwest Ohio. Eddie, where are we now? Interest rates, they've come down somewhat, but they're still uncomfortably high for a lot of people that are used to the low, low, low rates we've had. Yeah, so right now I checked with Cheryl Carroll over at Union Home Mortgage. She said today for a 30-year mortgage, well-approved buyer, they're around 7%. We are anticipating things to come down at least a couple of times in 2025, though. What's the inventory? Is there any inventory at all right now? Inventory is actually pretty good, so good news for buyers. Inventory, I just checked before I came here, there's around 1,200 homes on the market. I know that seems high, but for 10 counties overall, that's not great, but in January when I was here talking to you, we only had 700 homes on the market. So what we're seeing is inventory has increased approximately 10%, so that's good news for buyers. Sale prices have gone up around 4.8%, so good news for sellers. Now, we've had this discussion about my own situation. A lot of people in your 50s, 60s, 70s that want to downsize, kids are grown, downsize, but I'm not going to lose a 2.5% mortgage rate to buy something else and then have to pay. It's just not a smart thing to do. Yeah, you're the majority of people right now, so the people that are moving are the people that have life events going on. Sure. Diapers, diplomas, divorce, death, those are the people that are making changes. And that's primarily been the majority of the people I've worked with this year. Okay, let's show you the graphic here, what the trends were in the month of November. Break this down for me here. So sales were down about 5.1%, but sale prices... Year over year in November? Year over year in November, and then sale prices were up 4.8%, so there's some good news for the sellers. And one of the other things to keep in mind is Toledo is still one of the most affordable places to live. The average sale price in the nation is well over $400,000. I was looking a little bit ago, and in the state of Ohio, the average price for a house, $249,000? Yes. Does that seem accurate to you? That also tells me, though, that if I'm a young person, a young newly married with a child, to be able to afford a $249,000 home with a 7% interest rate, that's a lot of hurdles to cross for someone young. So when you and I bought our first homes, we were probably 22, 21, somewhere in that range. The average first-time homebuyer is 30 to 35 years old today. So what does that mean? They're out of college, they've probably paid off some debt, they're living at home or they're living in an apartment, they don't have a lot of expenses to account for, and they've risen up probably in their occupation, so now they have a bigger down payment, and they can afford the higher cost of the homes today. How is that, our society is changing, where that's happening, where a lot of young adults are living with mom and dad, temporarily, they've got jobs, they're trying to put a little nest egg together, so they can finally move out and get a decent home to live in with their family. Yeah, and coincidentally, 17% of all homes that sold last year were multi-generational. Really? People that were buying homes together with their parents, knowing that someday their parents are going to move on, and they'll be able to take over the home, and that makes it more affordable for them. What's been the impact on Baby Boomers with the kind of home they want? More villas, more condos, how's that changing the construction of new subdivisions, things like that, whereas years ago, they were building these huge homes for families? Yeah, so you hit it on the head. Villas, condos, those are really popular for people that are downsizing. Somebody that's looking for an all-brick ranch home, if I could sell brick ranch homes the rest of my career, I'd be a happy guy. That is a very popular home for people to buy. What do you see in the future for 2025 with the housing market? Good news? Stability. And for realtors, we went through this crazy boom where for 2020, 2021, it was get a buyer into the house at one, make an offer by two, and that's what you had to do. So for buyers, there's going to be some time for them to be able to make those decisions. They don't need to make a hasty decision and feel like they're making an incorrect decision, so that's good news for them. And prices still look like they're going to be going up, but just more modestly. In our area, 2% to 3%, 2% to 4% has traditionally been where the growth has been. So are things pretty much, because we've been with unrealistic times the last few years, those incredibly low interest rates. Are we getting to be more with traditional home selling, what it used to be before that? Absolutely. Today, if I talk to all my realtor friends, it feels like I'm in more of a normal market, markets that we've been more accustomed to. What was that like to keep up with when you just had homes just choo-choo-choo? Oh my goodness. It was working until 10 o'clock at night, it was working every weekend, it was making sure that you got them into the home immediately, and you had an offer already in hand, so that way if they liked it, you could put that offer into somebody else's email and get that accepted as quickly as possible. And it was always just a challenge just to figure out what's the right combination to be able to make sure that that buyer's going to successfully get that offer. Are we past the time now where someone has to pay over asking price to get a home? Are we getting more to, like I say, what it used to be? Good question. So not necessarily. So the homes that are in really good condition, they've got a new roof, furnace, A.C. water tank, they've been decorated in a neutral decor, they're staged really well, those homes, they're still getting some multiple offers out there, but we're not getting 20, we're getting 2 or 3. Boy, this guy, this is his living is all the ups and downs of that whole thing. Absolutely. It's been like having to be a firefighter for the last few years. Eddie, well done. Thanks for your time. Appreciate it. Great seeing you again.