New Jersey Real Estate Report

From the Hill:

1 in 3 baby boomers say they’ll never sell home: Redfin

About a third of baby boomers who own their homes don’t expect to ever part with them, according to a new poll.

The survey, which was conducted by Ipsos last month for nationwide real estate company Redfin, found that another 30 percent of the post-World War II generation said they might sell at some point — just not within the next decade.

Comparatively, about a quarter of homeowners who are part of Gen X — loosely defined as people born between 1965 and 1980 — say they will never sell their homes. About 20 percent of Millennials and the Gen Z cohort who own homes said they will never sell.

According to Redfin, the tendency among older Americans to stay in the homes they own is putting additional stress on the housing market and making it more difficult for younger people to find affordable places to buy that are fit to raise families. Nearly 90 percent of the boomer-owned dwellings are single-family homes.

“While inventory is improving, supply is tight for young house hunters looking for family homes, especially in suburban areas where homes priced like starter homes, yet large enough for families, are scarce,” Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather said in an analysis of the poll’s findings. “With baby boomers opting to age in place rather than sell, it’s challenging for younger buyers to find affordable options that fit their lifestyle.”

From Mansion Global:

Rising Home Prices Are Creating More ‘Everyday Millionaires’

More than 1,000 Americans a day became millionaires last year, according to a report from UBS released on Wednesday. 

The number of worldwide millionaires, measured in U.S. dollars, rose 1.2% last year, with the U.S. adding more than 379,000 new millionaires. Globally, more than 684,000 people became millionaires last year. 

This rise in wealth—which is up 4.6% globally, following 2023’s bump of 4.2%—is in part because of an increase in the “everyday millionaire,” which UBS defines as someone with investible assets between $1 million and $5 million. At the end of last year, there were 52 million everyday millionaires, more than quadruple the amount that existed in 2000. This demographic accounts for about $107 trillion in wealth—nearly as much as those with more than $5 million in assets, who have a total wealth of $119 trillion. 

The growth of real estate values is playing the largest factor in the rise of everyday millionaires, UBS found. Exchange rates are also a major component of everyday millionaires’ wealth, and the sudden devaluation of another currency against the U.S. dollar could quickly diminish the number of everyday millionaires overseas, according to UBS. 

North American adults, who saw their wealth increase by more than 11%, were the wealthiest on average last year at $593,347, followed by Oceania ($496,696) and Western Europe ($287,688). By country, however, Switzerland was No. 1 in average wealth per adult at $687,166. The U.S. was second with an average wealth of $620,654, followed by Hong Kong at $601,195.

From MarketWatch:

Bye-bye bidding wars: Housing market becomes more buyer-friendly as more sellers slash prices

Home sellers this spring have been frustrated by a slower-than-normal housing market. That could set up a summer of deals for buyers.

Housing inventory is nearing prepandemic levels, with the number of homes for sale exceeding 1 million, the highest level since winter 2019. The share of homes for sale with a price cut has increased for the last five months in a row, Realtor.com senior economist Jake Krimmel told MarketWatch. 

That means house hunters this year could end up seeing the “most buyer-friendly summer” in three years, Krimmel said.

Across the U.S., many areas are seeing a profound shift as homes increasingly languish on the market. The typical home for sale remained on the market for 38 days this May, six days longer than in May 2024, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin.

More sellers are offering discounts to buyers. Even as competition intensifies, buyer activity has dropped, said Jeremy Applebaum, an Overland Park, Kan.-based real-estate agent with Applebaum KC Homes for the Real Brokerage. He’s writing fewer offers, he told MarketWatch, and homes are sitting on the market longer. 

Real-estate agents on the seller side are telling their clients to face the uncomfortable truth: They might have to slash their asking price even deeper if they want to sell their home anytime soon. 

“Sellers still have expectations that some people call unrealistic. I call it aspirational pricing,” Jeanne Frederick, a Las Vegas-based global luxury-property specialist at Coldwell Banker, told MarketWatch.

Heather Cook, a Charlotte-based real-estate agent with the Curated Group for the Real Brokerage, agreed. “There’s an extreme disconnect between seller mentality versus reality,” she said. “Buyers are absolutely unwilling to overpay for homes, especially ones sitting on the market for over 30 days, which is not uncommon right now.”

From Newsweek:

Denver Faces Pileup of Unsold Homes

There are more homes for sale in Denver now than there were before the pandemic, in 2019, as hundreds of listings are piling up in the market amid buyers’ apparent indifference.

While prices have begun to slide, they remain much higher than they were five years ago—suggesting that the vast majority of homes on the market may still be unaffordable for many buyers in the city already struggling with high mortgage rates and growing housing costs.

Denver’s housing market exploded during the pandemic, when the nationwide homebuying frenzy spurred by historically low mortgage rates found fertile ground in the city. In the past five years, however, inventory dried up, and mile-high home prices and high mortgage rates have pushed homeownership out of the reach of many locals.

Now, however, things are starting to change. Inventory is finally growing again, as sellers who were waiting for lower mortgage rates have accepted that the situation might not change anytime soon. In Denver, listings are now above pre-pandemic norms, suggesting that prices might soon come down as buyers acquire more negotiating power.

Inventory is on the rise in Denver, but sales are not keeping up.

According to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors (DMAR), there were 13,599 active listings in the city in May, up 13.67 percent from a month earlier and the highest number since 2011. New listings, at 7,284, went up by 3.14 percent.

While pending sales were also on the rise month-over-month by 6.88 percent at 4,349, the number of closed sales was actually down 2.63 percent at 4,036. Sales volume, at $2.91 billion, was down by 2.44 percent.

From Realtor.com:

Home Prices Are ‘Not on the Verge of a Nuclear Crash’: Economist Projects Modest Price Gains of 3% in 2025

National Association of Realtors® Chief Economist Lawrence Yun has said that he believes home sales will pick up in the second half of the year and that national median home prices will grow 3% in 2025.

Speaking at the Realtors Legislative Meetings in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Yun argued that overall home prices will continue to grow modestly, despite weak sales in the first half of the year and an uptick in seller price reductions.

“Home prices are not on the verge of a nuclear crash,” said Yun, pointing to low levels of serious mortgage delinquencies as a sign that few homeowners will be forced into distressed sales.

Despite weak sales activity in the early part of the year, Yun forecasts existing-home sales will rebound and rise 6% this year compared with 2024, while new-home sales will rise 10%.

His forecast hinges on mortgage rates easing to 6.4% by the end of the year, alongside continued labor market growth with 1.6 million jobs added to the economy across 2025.