The US home turnover rate in the first half of 2023 has fallen to the lowest in at least a decade as high mortgage rates compel owners to stay put, Redfin Corp. said.
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Home turnover is generally a sign of economic mobility. People should be able to afford nicer homes a few times in their life, or move to pursue greater opportunities. Having 25% fewer homes being sold means those conditions that cause people to move (to hopefully better situations) are not occurring.
Yes, but we just had a pandemic, where most people were afraid to look for houses, afraid to not catch a virus that at the time was unknown. Then after things started returning to normal we got inflation, because supply couldn’t keep up with demand so interest rates were jacked to stop it.
Then there’s the thing that especially in some industries there’s a massive push to keep working from home, so less motivation of moving.
I don’t think the current statistics are surprising.
I definitely agree that this isn’t surprising. Honestly the biggest factor for me is just the fed rates making mortgage rates ridiculous. This slowdown in home turnover was basically engineered by the fed in order to slow down the rapid home inflation we were seeing as everything reopened from the pandemic.
Still, it’s something worth putting out there so everyone’s aware of what’s happening.
