More signs of weakness in housing.

Things are going so swimmingly well that mortgage rates hit a new low today. 3.829% /sarc

The last lowest reading a few weeks ago was 3.87%. Also - fully a third of properties for sale in my city now are under price reduction. Although the reductions have moderated. Most are only a few thousand dollars. Which means agents think the properties they are listing are close to the right price. I'm guessing the market doesn't think that because sales have really slowed.

When I told Mr S. the above story he said - why would you bother marking a house down a couple of thousand dollars? When you get down to it - anything under five grand is a negotiating issue. Which he's completely right about. This made me go over and look at these properties more closely to see what the pattern was. Maybe they had all hit the magic 30 day mark and that will trigger the agents to try to get some new traction.

To my shock - a bunch of the houses hadn't even been on the market that long. Some as low as 13 days were being marked down. Mr S. thinks this shows a bit of seller panic. Which I'd have to agree with.

This also tells me that world events are less at play with the lower mortgage rates than actual housing weakness. I'm guessing it is some mix - but people rushing into the safe haven of the US is only part of the picture.

In other news - the world seems to be waking up to the fact that low mortgage rates are fucking the market to kingdom come. I first talked about it in April with the article Low interest rates will alter the housing market for decades.