Albuquerque’s Housing Market: It’s Pretty Wild Right Now!

(Transcript Snippet): “Tracy:

So Tego, where should we start?

Tego:

Let’s let’s just I, I really dug into some of the data on the housing market, in the Albuquerque area, cuz I, you know, there’s, I mean, I think, I think most everybody knows the housing market pretty, pretty wild right now in the sense that very few homes on the market homes that are coming down market are selling very fast. And I dug some of that data up to get a better idea. And even the rental market, you know, anything related to housing is in high demand, low supply right now, you know, we’re hearing lots of stories about rents going up quite a bit. A lot of people are getting getting their rents bumped up, which is really tough. I mean, it is that’s that’s it is that’s tough. I mean, definitely rents have, have gone up faster than wages.

Tracy:

Affordability is an issue.

Tego:

It is. And you know, of the, the, the good news is homeowners are in a very good position right now. And I mean, if, if you’re a homeowner, if you’re not a homeowner, it’s, it’s it’s challenging, but homeowners in a great position, you know they can stay in their home. It looks like equity’s gonna continue to grow. It looks like home prices are gonna continue to grow. There’s no signs at home prices are going to do anything, but to continue to appreciate right now. And you know, that that’ll change, right? I mean, there’s, there’s always gonna be ebbs and flows, but at the moment we have so few homes on the market and so such high demand. Totally.

Tracy:

It it’s March, we’ve experienced some nice warm weather this week. Yep. Which does seem on our home selling season. So, you know, I, I know from our historical charts that I bet you’re gonna tell us about that we’re coming into our busiest time of the year for home buyers and home sellers.

Tego:

Well, if, if you look at the number when, you know, the most homes come on, the market, usually it’s early in the summer. So we’ll usually see a spike in April, may, June is when, you know, kind of a, a high percentage of homes come on the market. We’re hoping, hoping, knocking, not knock on wood that we get get that a little bit earlier this year. However, so far, I watch it every week and we’re still actually ticking down every week. The number of homes actually active on the market at any given time. And it’s not that homes aren’t coming on the market. I mean, homes are coming on the market. There were almost a thousand homes that came on the market in February in the greater Albuquerque area. However, that’s 14%, less than a year ago in February.

Tego:

And, and last year was, you know, down as well. So yes, homes are coming on the market, but not as much as, as we need to take care of the demand. What what’s happened is the price per square foot in the price, you know, average price, medium price, and Albuquerque have hit all time to highs for February. So price per square foot was $180, which is, I mean, you think about that. Tracy, remember, you know, when we were, you know, 90, 90, a square foot, a hundred, a square foot was pretty common for, you know, some of the, the starter homes right now, we’re at 180, 80 per square foot heated, you know, that’s one way we look at it and all time high, 17% higher than a year ago, price per square foot. So home prices continue to grow. And in my humble opinion, I’ll get up my, my my cloudy crystal ball. Doesn’t look like that. You know, a price appreciate in is, is gonna stop. Hopefully it slows down a little bit, honestly, cuz you know, 17% year over year appreciation, we can’t keep doing that. And, and, and again, going back to the whole affordability issue, right, Tracy, right.

Tracy:

And you know, the stats that I read this week, I know stats, aren’t my thing. They’re year things are state matter. Wow. How I,

Tego:

You did stats without me.

Tracy:

I, I did read a few stories that were local. Yeah. Or national, but with local predictions. And they’re still saying, you know, this year, next year home prices will continue to rise in our market. Probably not as great, like 17%, but pretty serious. So when people say I’m gonna wait and have the market shift and not buy right now. Well, the prices are gonna continue to go up according to every statistic we can see and based on affordability yeah. And supply it, it certainly is. Seems reasonable.