Despite mortgage rate unpredictability, the real estate market is growing in some of the country’s priciest cities. According to the latest Zillow data, listings and homes going under contract have increased markedly in September. Cities at the top end of the market, such as Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Jose, showed the greatest gains.
“Generally, new listings and sales moved closer to pre-pandemic norms in September,” said Kara Ng, a housing economist at Zillow, told Yahoo! Finance. “That’s still a long way to go in terms of normalizing supply.”
Rate-Locked Buyers Come Off the Sidelines
The top end of the market had been stagnant amid the post-pandemic interest rate increase, with homeowners rate-locked and unwilling to give up sub-4% interest rates for 7% and higher. The recent movement at the high end could reflect optimism about future interest rate cuts and a desire to jump into the market before prices climb. It could also signal a pent-up need to move, which had been stalled amid interest rate and market uncertainty.
Despite a…