General Real Estate News

This is from a 2025 report from the National Association of Realtors.

No surprise that baby boomers are the largest group of home buyers and sellers. The great boomer sell-off isn’t going to happen, and no boomers won’t all die at once and leave houses and money to younger generations. If there is any money, it will pay for medical expenses and long-term care.

In the report, younger baby boomers are 60-69 years old, and older boomers are 70-79 years old. Younger baby boomers are the single largest group of home buyers and sellers which kind of makes sense when you think about it.

One thing I have learned over the years is to avoid assuming that because a client is a certain age, that they will want or won’t want a certain type of housing. Some baby boomers are downsizing while others are buying larger homes to accommodate multiple generations.  Some Baby Boomers move to warmer climates; others come to Minnesota to be near family and friends.

Where we live and how we live is a matter of personal choice and how much money we have or can earn.

There are Baby Boomers who are aging in place. People are more likely to move because of a change in their life, like a new job, a marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, or the death of a spouse than because of their age.

New tariffs will be imposed tomorrow and that isn’t an April fools joke. The president is calling it “Liberation Day”.  That really sounds like an April Fools’ joke.

When I read the news, it looks like one big April fools joke with presidents who plan to run for a third term while people are being arrested for having opinions that the “government” doesn’t agree with.  Words are being redacted from government websites because someone doesn’t like them.

On a happier note, April showers bring May flowers. April is a kind of transitional month between winter and spring. In some parts of the country, it is already summer, but here in the bold cold north, it is still winter.

Today is also the first day of “Thirty days of biking”.  That also sounds like an April fools joke what with the wind and snow and cold weather. For me “Thirty Days of Biking” is more of a spectators sport. On the warmer, dryer days toward the end of the month, I’ll participate.

 

Happy April fools’ day. Be careful out there.

Get ready for the recession or as I like to call it the “Trump Slump”.

We went from “I’ll lower prices on day one” to “there will be some pain” and “a recession is possible” in less than eight weeks. We went from “egg prices will be lower” to “consider raising backyard chickens” in less than six weeks. Prices have gone up instead of down.

This week we went from lower energy prices to a 25% tariff on energy from Canada. If that isn’t an incentive to use less energy and to use more renewable energy I don’t know what is. We will all pay plenty for Trump’s trade war while he and his family enjoy a life of luxury.

Stock prices are plummeting and interest rates remain high.

I have lived through several recessions and am prepared for the next. My household has been mortgage-free since the end of the Great Recession. Being debt-free or having little debt makes it much easier to survive a recession.

Now is the time to pay off those credit cards and car loans. Inflation will continue to eat away savings which is another reason why it makes sense to use the money to pay down debt. It might be a good time to buy a house if the mortgage payment is less than what you are currently paying for rent. If you stay in that house you may have it paid off three recessions from now.

Live as if your paycheck will be the last one you get. Consider starting a business or doing contract work for a little job security. I have been self-employed for 23 years and have not been laid once during that time. If you have a job now is the perfect time to research business ideas.

I have been thinking about raising chickens. I keep talking myself out of it. If you live in St. Paul and want to raise chickens make sure you get a permit. Go to Stpaul.gov and search “keeping of animals”. I would put a link in but they move the pages around often and I end up with dead links on my site.

Also, consider beekeeping. There are many rules about beekeeping in St. Paul. Perhaps a person could use honey and eggs for barter.

There are a few things that affect housing prices. Supply and demand have the most impact. Demand goes down when unemployment rates or mortgage rates go up. Supply can increase if more houses are built but tariffs will drive new construction prices up which could drive up housing prices.

President Donald Trump indicated on Monday that he intends to go ahead with plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on all Canadian and Mexican goods beginning early next week.

“The tariffs are going forward on time, on schedule,” Trump said at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, who is in Washington for talks on Ukraine and other matters.

Inflation and mortgage interest rates will rise due to the higher prices because of the tariffs.  New home prices will rise as materials cost more.

However, we are already seeing a slowdown in the housing market due primarily to higher interest rates.  We could be looking at weaker demand during the next several months which means we could see more of a buyer’s market where houses are on the market longer and where buyers more control.

As of January homes are currently sitting on the market for longer than at any point in the last five years, signifying a slower housing market with buyers having more leverage due to increased inventory and longer selling times compared to the recent pandemic-driven boom.

If you aren’t paying attention, the Trump administration wants to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CFPB.  As a Realtor and a broker part of my required continuing education has been about mortgages, fraud, and consumer protection. Sure I would have more fun if there weren’t so many regulations but I think consumer protection is important especially when it comes to money and banking.

It looks like the “complaint” section of the website is still online:

We currently accept complaints about:

• Checking and savings accounts
• Credit cards
• Credit reports and other personal consumer reports
• Debt collection
• Debt and credit management
• Money transfers, virtual currency, and money services
• Mortgages
• Payday loans
• Personal loans like installment, advance, and title loans
• Prepaid cards
• Student loans
• Vehicle loans or leases

Which is more important. Spending millions of dollars to send the president of the US to the Super Bowl game or to fund the CFPB?  Which is more wasteful spending Billions on various subsidies for the NFL or spending it on consumer protection? Too bad we don’t get to have a say. Too bad it is the ultra-wealthy who are deciding what is wasteful spending and what is not.

From what I have seen in my decades working in real estate I would vote for consumer protection over football every time.

Home prices keep going up. The chart below shows median home prices over the past decade:

The reason why home prices went up during the Biden administration is because Biden caused prices to rise. It had nothing to do with higher demand or the buying frenzy after the pandemic when interest rates were at an all-time low.  Home prices went up during the last Trump presidency because of something President Obama must have done while he was in office. I am not sure why this executive order wasn’t issued in 2017 but it wasn’t.

Those days are behind us now. Last week President Trump signed an executive order to lower the cost of housing.

“I hereby order the heads of all executive departments and agencies to deliver emergency price relief, consistent with applicable law, to the American people and increase the prosperity of the American worker.  This shall include pursuing appropriate actions to:  lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply; eliminate unnecessary administrative expenses and rent-seeking practices that increase healthcare costs; eliminate counterproductive requirements that raise the costs of home appliances; create employment opportunities for American workers, including drawing discouraged workers into the labor force; and eliminate harmful, coercive “climate” policies that increase the costs of food and fuel.  Within 30 days of the date of this memorandum, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy shall report to me and every 30 days thereafter, on the status of the implementation of this memorandum. ” January 20, 2025

On a somewhat related note, gasoline prices are on average $.20 a gallon higher in Minnesota this week than a year ago.  Egg prices are way up too.

I’ll keep publishing information about home sales and prices every month as I have been doing for the last 20 years. I will start including a monthly chart that shows home prices in the current month compared to the same month a year ago. I will track falling home prices.