ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — It’s been a roller coaster of a housing market these past two years and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down. A St. Augustine brokerage says there is housing market inflation and the supply cannot meet the demand.
Lindsey DellaSala, with the DJ & Lindsey Team, says their team sold 3,000 homes across Florida in 2021 totaling sales of 1 billion dollars. She shares the 3 things you should know:
- Expects home prices to continue to rise
- Interest rates to stay low until 2023
- Inventory is low but expect more newly built homes to come on the market farther out from the water
DellaSala says home prices are up about 20% from 2020 to 2021. She's seeing people pay an average of 160 more a month on mortgage.
With an about equal increase on rent, DellaSala argues buying might be more appealing even in this market.
“Rents can be a little kind of funky where as they can go up, they can go down," DellaSala said. "Your landlord could not to renew your lease and you could be out of a home. So when you can get locked in to a really low fixed interest rate, that’s often times going to be much more affordable than renting a home.”
If you want to buy, she says get pre-approved for loan with local lender, know your budget, and be ready to offer immediately
Jacksonville is #2 on Zillow’s hottest housing markets for 2022. Zillow says it earned this rank because of job growth, inventory, and likely buyers.
“The problem continues to perpetuate itself," DellaSala said. "You have a seller putting their home on the market. Right? So they put it at a certain number. In order for that person to sell their home, they have to go out and buy a new home. If inventory is low, that seller when they go to buy a new home they’re probably going to overpay for the next one because they don’t want to be homeless or put in a position where there home has sold and they have no where to go.”
When will buyers benefit? She says they can now.
“Try to focus on that monthly mortgage payment. If that is something you can afford right now, then it makes sense for you to buy a home," she said.
She says if you buy a house with a mortgage you can afford and at the same price or cheaper than your rent, then you won’t have to deal with fluctuating monthly rental payments.