Here are my four predictions for next year’s real estate market.

2021 has been a banner year for real estate. We've seen high prices like never before and so I’m getting a lot of questions right now about what can be expected in 2022. Today I'll share four predictions that I have for next year:
1. 2022 will be more buyer-friendly. Over the last six months, we’ve started to see signs of the market starting to shift. We will likely continue to see the market balance out more next year. It won’t become a buyer's market, but it should be more buyer-friendly.
2. Expect to see more inventory. January is typically one of our heaviest months for new inventory and it can be a great time to start looking again. We will likely see more options for most buyers.
3. Don’t expect prices to fall. They're not going to go up as much as they did this year, but nothing in the data is telling us that prices are going to decrease. Most experts expect steady appreciatio ...

Here’s why Zillow had to cancel all of their iBuyer operations.

One of the biggest iBuyers in Phoenix has completely ceased operations. That's right; it’s Zillow Offers, the same company I was talking about two months ago. But why did they fail? Let’s start with some backstory.

Zillow Offers started in about 2018, trying to compete with other iBuyers for the market. They were buying at a sustainable rate, but, over the summer, Zillow and other iBuyers started buying everything they could. Zillow came out recently and said they were losing so much money that they had to completely stop operations.
"It’ll be interesting to see where Zillow goes from here."

In Q2, Zillow lost $400 million on their iBuyer program, but what about the other companies? In my opinion, Zillow was making the most egregious offers out there, buying homes for way more than they were worth. Zillow had to sell 91% of the Phoenix homes they bought at or below what they paid for the ...

Here’s what you need to know about iBuyers in our Phoenix market.

If you’ve been paying attention to the Phoenix real estate market, you may have noticed a surge in iBuyers. Why is that? Today, I want to answer that question and explain the iBuyer situation in our current market. 

So why are hedge funds investing in real estate in the first place? Conventional wisdom says they put their excess money into stocks, but that changed when the market crashed in 2008 and 2009. Companies were sitting on huge piles of cash, and real estate was so cheap, it was too good of a deal to pass up. Since then, companies have realized the power of investing in real estate. We’ve seen nothing but appreciation since the crash in 2008, so their investments have paid off so far; why would they stop now? 

This is contributing to a supply-side issue in our market that is also related to the 2008 crash. When everything crashed, builders were left in a tough position since ...

Here’s why things in our market seem to be getting back to normal.

It seems like things are slowly beginning to get back to normal, both in day-to-day lives and in our real estate market. Here are the three reasons why the blazing-hot market is starting to cool off slightly:

1. Fewer multiple-offer situations: Since March, there’s been a decline in the number of bidding wars on homes. This doesn’t mean they’re gone entirely, but they’re certainly not as rampant as they were six months ago.
2. More listings: In July alone, we saw more listings come onto the market than we did over the previous 10 months. This means buyers have enjoyed more options to choose from when looking for a home.

"I believe a lot of these changes have to do with buyer fatigue."

 
3. Homes aren’t selling as quickly: Listings are staying on the market for a slightly longer amount of time before they’re sold. Again, this allows buyers to have more optio ...

What you need to know about the primary residence principal exemption.

You can potentially make up to $500,000 and not have to pay a single tax on it. This is called a primary residence principal exemption, and it states that if you decide to sell your home and you’ve lived in it for two out of the last five years, the money you make from that sale would not be taxed. A married couple wouldn’t have to pay any taxes on the gain from up to a $500,000 taxable event, and it’s $250,000 if you’re filing as a single person. This is a unique exemption that I’ve used myself, and I’ve seen clients use it to help them move to a more expensive property. 
The primary residence principal exemption isn’t a one-time exemption either, you can use it as many times as you want. Especially with how much equity people have gained in our real estate market over the last couple of years, they may be worried about how much they’d have to pay back in t ...