Make no mistake, home sales are dropping: down two-percent in January and February across the nation.
Real estate specialist and developer Arthur Sterbcow says: "The number of showings are down about 12% from the same period last year. And that is actual people out there... being shown homes with realtors, where the appointments are being recorded. So that's a pretty good reflection of where the market is."
Sterbcow says we won't see a crash like in 2008, but rather a slow deflation of the market as inflation and mortgage rates climb over the year.
"We're going to see a little bit of a softening now," Sterbcow explains. "But primarily inflation and rising gas prices [and the loss of] discretionary income is going to hurt some of these folks before they qualify."
Sterbcow says everything hinges on the first time homebuyer and their ability to make that important first home purchase:
"If you don't have first time home buyers in the market, then there's no one to buy the second home buyer's home. So the first time home buyer is like the first domino that pushes everybody upwards onto the housing escalator if you want to think, where you go from your first to your second, to your third, to your fourth."
Sterbcow says just two things that are making the market deflate:
"Inflation and the price of gas. Those will be the chilling effect nationwide, not just here, nationwide. And we're not insulated from that in a local region."
