Almost to the weekend. I can't wait just so I can sleep in for a couple days, lol. I haven't been getting enough sleep this week and am super tired.
Tonight, I am going to a local real estate investors meeting. The guest speaker is going to be talking in depth about the state of the housing market in New Orleans. This has been causing me so much stress over the last few months because I feel like I've been watching house prices drop like stones.
It's a few issues for this, but one of them feels temporary. There's the usual...high insurance and high interest rates. The insurance issue has gotten slightly better in the last few months. And if we can make it through the summer without a major hurricane anywhere in the US and especially not in this area, I think rates will drop further come Fall. But that is a big "if". I don't think interest rates will be going up much more and might improve by early next year.
But the unusual, more temporary item is the city recently made a major change to how they are doing short-term rentals. A lot of people lost their STR licenses. My rentals aren't in "STR" areas, but my personal home "kind of" is. It's not a prime STR neighborhood, but it's still a decent choice for an STR area and there have been a number of them in the past. There has suddenly been a glut of homes for sale in my neighborhood and I think that has something to do with it. But how much is it affecting it? That's what I'm not sure about.
The bottom line for me is, am I better off selling my house in the Fall like I have been planning to? Or am I better off waiting a bit longer, hoping the glut of houses for sale in my neighborhood get sold and it goes back to normal levels? And prices go back up some or at least stabilize and have less competition. But the huge gamble with that is what if prices keep falling and I lose even more equity than I already have. I've just been sick about it.
