CRYSTAL, Minn. — Much like the gloomy skies Minnesota has seen recently, the housing market has also been in a bit of a funk.
"Things have changed dramatically over the last three years since I started," Mallory Johnson, a realtor with the Brittney Shull team, said.
The past few years certainly have not been kind to the market, with what feels like endless issues affecting it. Pick any you like, and Johnson has seen the issues it's caused.
"Interest rates went up, and everybody stopped buying. It went up to the eights, and people paused," she said. "And now, you know, they need $300,000 to get something that is even move-in ready."
To top it all off, the inventory of homes ready for move-in has been low, Johnson says.
"From July until, you know, now, it was the lowest I've ever seen," she said. "It was bad."
It's a problem that many homebuyers – and realtors – are seeing.
"It's pretty competitive in the first, second ring suburbs," Andrew Wieberdink, owner of North Coast Realty, said.
Wieberdink echoes those struggles – he's seen them himself.
Nationally, it's a common trend and one that has home buying at a 30-year low, according to the National Association of Realtors. It's something that doesn't come as a surprise for Wieberdink.
"People started to shy away from buying homes because everybody thinks or thought that interest rates were going to come down, not realizing that the rates that we had were just unprecedented, and not normal," he said.
Here in the Metro, we're a bit different, but not by much.
"And while sales definitely have come down, there are still buyers out there," David Arbit, a housing analyst for Minnesota Realtors, said. "In fact, we still hear there's multiple offers happening."
Arbit says we're not quite in a 30-year low – more like a 10 to 12-year low – and across the state, that trend that both realtors spoke to is happening.
That doesn't mean there's no hope, though.
"The other silver lining is that we've seen a big change in rates, they've gone from over 8% to more like six and a half, six and three quarters-ish, and that has had a meaningful impact on affordability," Arbit said.
For these realtors, there's hope here as well – and hope that people may be able to get into their dream homes.
"I am optimistic, I am keeping my hopes up that the interest rates are going to kind of stay in this, like, healthy range," Johnson said. "I think as long as we hover there, we're gonna be good."
Watch more Breaking The News:
Watch all of the latest stories from Breaking The News in our YouTube playlist: