Well, the Fed did it again—they raised interest rates. These rate hikes continue to squeeze buyers’ budgets and the uncertainty that follows causes others to take a wait-and-see approach.

My Observations

As interest rates have risen since spring, I’ve watched sellers lower their prices and days on market increase.

We're moving away from a pure seller's market; however, sellers have a slight advantage because the supply of homes is so low. Buyers and sellers are negotiating on price, terms, and inspection repairs.

The number of new listings has been declining since interest rates began rising. This tells me sellers may not want to list their homes and trade their low-interest-rate mortgages for something higher.

Sellers who price their homes based on peak-market activity end up overpricing them. These properties eventually sell after price adjustments.

Despite the current economic environment, there are engaged buyers out there. Our market continues to be strong from a historical perspective.

Things are going gangbusters around here. Every week there’s not enough homes to keep up with insane demand, and buyers keep paying high prices because they’re competing for something that’s in limited supply.

From Aspen to Parachute, there were 150 new listings in April and 211 sold. The ratio of new listings to sold homes is .71:1.

There have been more sales than listings in 7 of the past 8 months.

To put things in perspective, in a balanced market, six months is considered normal to sell a home. As of the end of April, it took 3.2 months--for the entire local market.

And, prices keep going up, up, and up.

I'll get to my kidney in just a minute. First--our housing market is a beast for buyers right now. We do not have enough inventory to meet current demand.