More “bad news” for the housing market. . .if you see the glass as half empty.

From my perspective, the cup runneth over.

Pending home sales barely moved in August. Just +0.3% from July.

But they were still down 4.7% from a year ago and are running roughly 30% below pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile, existing-home inventory has climbed to 1.62 million homes.

That’s 4.9 months of supply, the highest level in more than a decade.

And mortgage rates start today at 7.2%

Do the math: more houses + fewer buyers + high borrowing costs =

Sellers who cannot get their houses sold the old-fashioned way.

When traditional transactions stop working, somebody has to find another way to make the numbers work.

Maybe the seller doesn't need to sell today. Maybe they need income. Maybe they need their asking price.

Or they need to move but don't want to become a landlord.

Perhaps the buyer can't qualify for today's mortgage.

That's where creative real estate comes into the picture.

Lease options

Cooperative Assignments

Seller financing

Different problems require different solutions.

The point isn't to force a deal into the traditional “buyer gets mortgage. . .seller gets cash. . . transaction closes” box.

Instead, ask

“What does each party actually need, and is there another way to structure the deal?”

The worse the conventional market gets,

the more valuable creative thinking becomes.

That's not necessarily bad news at all.