Housing Market “Insider Activity”: Is Realtor Buying Still a Bearish Indicator?

Looking for Signs of a Market Top

Once upon a time, a sure-fire yellow (or red!) flag for frothy home prices was Realtors buying homes for themselves, either as investments, or to fix up and flip.

See, “Insider Buying & the Housing Market: Why Realtors are a CONTRARIAN Indicator.”

The logic: agents were most bullish (and financially flushest) at the top of the cycle, which is when they tended to enter the market as Buyers.

Ergo, that’s when the smart money knew it was time to exit.

For market prognosticators watching for signs of another downturn, is what I’ll call the “Realtor Activity Index” still a good contrarian indicator?

Different This Time (Really)

At the risk of invoking the four most dangerous words in investing (“this time is different”), I don’t think so.

That’s for two reasons:

One. Low inventory and transaction volume.

Back at the 2006 peak, there were around 35,000 homes for sale in the Twin Cities.

Today, the number is less than one-third of that.

While that continued shortage of inventory has been great for prices, it translates into lower sales volume — and fewer individual commissions for area Realtors.

“The Newbie Factor” — Then & Now

Two. As a direct result of the drop in closed transactions, it seems like there are fewer new agents (“newbies”) entering the business today.

On the contrary, my (veteran’s) take is that today’s residential housing market is super-competitive, where the best and most established agents are taking market share . . . from everyone else.

While those elite agents certainly have the money to buy homes, they’re focusing their scarce time on doing transactions, not flips and remodels . . .

P.S.: Want a good analogy for the above?

Think of the 2018 housing market as generating a bigger commission pie, but with fewer slices.

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