Home Price Rises Continue to Wane
Here's some good news for your would-be homebuyers: the warp-speed home price increases we've seen during the past three years are losing momentum. According to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index, home price growth during August 2024 posted a 4.24% annual gain, which was down from the previous month's 4.82% increase.
The FHFA's price index turned in similar numbers, with August numbers almost identical to the S&P numbers. August saw a 4.25% price rise, down from July's 4.72% increase.
August's waning gains were the sixth consecutive year-over-year deceleration in home prices. This is a relief from earlier this year, when the rate peaked in February; the S&P Home Price index hit 6.57% while the FHFA recorded a 7.28% gain.1
Need A Side Hustle? Consider Property Tax Appeals
It's a common scenario: when homeowners receive their property tax bill, many will be unhappy, and some will want to appeal it. This is where you may be able to make a difference and earn some extra cash, and even earn some new business when a client's ready to sell.
The first thing you need to do: check to make sure your county doesn't have any special requirements. A few may require that you register as a tax agent. Next, make note of each county's basic rules and deadlines for filing appeals.
Next, you'll be able to use your existing skills to prepare a client's appeal. Your existing CMAs can also be helpful. Also, when you're researching local purchase prices and compare them to assessed values, you can reach out to anyone who could potentially save by hiring you to file an appeal.
Creating a fee structure is up to you. You can charge a percentage of the savings you obtain, go for a flat fee, or negotiate each individually.2
The First-time Homebuyers' Honeymoon Is Over
Remember how first-time homebuyers were often depicted as newlyweds? Here's why we're not seeing that description nearly as much these days.
The 2024 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers report found that the median first-time homebuyer's age has reached an all-time high of 38 years old. This is three years older than as recently as July 2023, and a far cry from the 1980s first-time buyers who were still in their 20s.
Additionally, the share of first-time homebuyers on the market decreased over the past year from 32% to 24%, which is the lowest percentage in over 40 years.
While rising prices and inflation have presented barriers to first-time buyers, they're also up against a housing shortage of 4 million homes. Construction of new homes has been slow in recent years, and buyer competition continues to push up prices.
However, builders are responding to the challenge, as single-family housing starts increased to 1,027,000 in September. This adds up to a 2.7% rise in housing starts from August.3
Audience Intelligence = Smarter Marketing
While you may have already discovered the convenience of AI tools like Bing or Claude to help you compose correspondence, it's time to consider putting AI to work within your marketing. One way to do this is to subscribe to an AI tool that provides you with audience intelligence.
Here's how this works. When you sign up for an AI platform like Audiense or Tunnl, you're provided with data that's been collected and analyzed by the platform. This provides a variety of digital footprints left by your preferred audiences (those interested in buying or selling a home). This may include their interactions on social media, website behavior, and data from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.
Audience intelligence decodes the digital languages of your target audience, which means you'll be able to truly understand their desires and concerns as if they had discussed them with you. This goes further than demographics. You'll be able to tailor more precise marketing campaigns that increase your online engagement and build customer loyalty.4
Make 2025 Your Year to Post Killer TikTok Videos?
The guidelines for posting on TikTok are similar to other social media platforms. Using hashtags for your listings' locations will help boost the right audience. Keep your video content short, add informative voice-overs to videos, and be clear about where your property is located. Viewers will be upset if they watch a longer video of a property that's out of their preferred buying area.
Here's another suggestion to keep in mind: when appropriate, encourage viewers to comment and interact with the post by asking questions for you to answer in the comment section.5
Sources: 1eyeonhousing.org, 2sidehustles.com, 3cnbc.com, 4resources.audiense.com, 5forbes.com
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