DALLAS — As Taylor Martin prepares to celebrate her two year anniversary as a North Texas realtor, she can't help but acknowledge the major shift in the housing market from when she started.
“I came on during a time that was unreal to a lot of realtors who were already real estate agents," Martin said.
Martin, a real estate agent with Dorsey DFW Realty Group, said record-low interest rates led to droves of buyers trying to take advantage and sellers getting the upper-hand.
"There were a lot more things that we had to do because it was not a buyers market," Martin said. "It was a seller’s market, and so the buyers don’t have the court. We have to figure out what we can do to sell ourselves to the sellers. We had to be a little bit more creative. We had to rely on building relationships with people, and you had to have a lot of money.”
Over the past month, with interest rates climbing, fewer people are wanting to buy. There are more homes available, and they're sitting on the market for longer.
“We had one moment where there were 18 offers on a home and the next, I had a couple listings that sat on the market for about 30 days, and that was unheard of," Martin said.
While she said it's currently an "unpopular" time to buy, she said it's a much better time for buyers to get homes without having to get into competitive bidding wars and make offers well over asking price.
"I actually had an offer get accepted overnight," Martin said. "We got to go under asking by $5,000, but if we were to do that four months ago, we would have to go over $100,000. So, think about that math a little bit. I would have to offer $565,000 for this house with a lower interest rate, or go at a higher interest rate and go below asking, and not be one of 20 million offers.”
Michael Melton, a loan officer with Supreme Lending, said the shift in the market has also leveled the playing field for first-time homebuyers and low-income homebuyers.
“It’s created an opportunity for those people to get back on the market and start shopping around," Melton said. “It’s been very difficult to get an FHA offer accepted. We really went through a tough time where a lot of sellers did not entertain FHA offers.”
A less competitive market allows for more options for buyers. Melton and Martin said balancing flexibility and feasibility to determine what they can afford for a monthly payment could allow for buyers to get in before the market heats back up.
“Let’s get you in your home now, and we can work on refinancing when those interest rates go back down," Melton said.