Homebuyer traffic hit the brake pedal in August, says the latest Credit Suisse monthly survey of real estate agents, dropping four points from July and down one point from the average.
August is not a peak month for homebuying, and extreme weather events like wildfires in Oregon and California, the "red tide" of algae in some Florida markets along with financial instability in Miami did have an effect. Yet, buyer exhaustion was the overarching theme real estate agents were encountering, reports Realtor.com. Buyers are continuing to move to the peripheries of cities where housing is more affordable, and still have difficulty gathering enough money for a down payment.
The sharp slowdown in the housing market has come as no surprise to most observers. A steep imbalance between supply and demand, overheating prices and rising mortgage rates, and limited offerings of homes to buy meant it was only a matter of time before a slowdown took place. The more important question now is: What kind of an impact will this hiatus have on local markets?