REAL Trending Episode 9: 2017 Tax Act and Downsizing Baby Boomers

 

REALTrending with Steve Murray

An excerpt from Episode 9 – listen to the podcast in its entirety by clicking the audio file below. 

There are clear signs now that the housing market is shifting.  And it’s clear that especially in the upper half of the market we are seeing an accumulation of inventory, unit sales decline and prices softening. So what’s going on? It’s clear to us that a lot of medium to upper-income Americans went to see their tax accountants in the 2nd quarter to try and figure out the impact of the 2017 tax act and what would happen to them under those circumstances. Also clear, that for people who are above median income, the tax act did very little, in fact, it will cost those more!

RELATED: Listen To Past Episodes of REALTrending

Also, clear is the fact that we are seeing baby boomers wanting to move out of their larger homes and begin the downsizing process. One big problem – there are not enough Millennial, Generation X or foreign purchasers to soak up all the large, 2 story homes owned by boomers. And there are not of places for Baby Boomers to downsize to.

REALTrending Episode 9

The economy is very strong and housing will remain healthy – we will see a shift, and in fact, it’s already underway! What does a brokerage do? Well, it’s time to start talking to sellers.  The market has shifted and the prices of 3 or 6 months ago are yesterday and you will need to adjust your marketing and pricing strategies. Pay attention to your P&L because those higher priced homes are going to soften up. Don’t get caught thinking long when you need to be thinking short-term.

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