East Texas housing market cooling down

TYLER – Over the last few years, the housing inventory hasn’t kept up with demand. According to our news partner KETK, a new house listing would receive multiple offers in just hours, most above asking price, but now the market has flipped. “The housing market definitely is slowing down,” said Luis Torres, Senior Business Economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Economy expert Luis Torres with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas says the housing market during the pandemic was on a roll. “The major driver of seeing such a hot housing market during the pandemic, was historical low mortgage rates that we show during that period,” said Torres. He spoke at UT Tyler recently about why he thinks interest and mortgage rates rising are now causing the market to cool off.

“It effects affordability, it’s a major contributor to affordability when you try to buy a house, and definitely buying a house is becoming more expensive right now than it was before,” said Torres. Kelly Raulston with the Greater Tyler Association of Realtors says serious buyers are still buying. “The medium value is $311,000, so we have increased that by 22% in comparison to last year,” said Kelly Raulston, Chairman Elect, The Greater Tyler Association of Realtors. Raulston attended the event and said they are even seeing an increase of homes going on the market. “We are up our inventory 43%,” said Raulston. She adds that though prices and inventory are up, sales are down almost 6%. Luis Torres saying it’s all thanks to one thing. Both Torres and Raulston hoping everything will eventually even out.