The Market Minute - February 2023
KEY POINTS
After a slight uptick in the housing market early in the month spurred on by a retraction in mortgage interest rates in late January, applications for mortgages plunged every week in February to end the month at a new 28-year low, declining 44% YoY and 48% compared to two years ago.
In Weld County, median sales prices for both single family and attached homes recovered to post a 1.7% and 4.2% YoY increase, respectively. Despite this, every metro in the region still posted values below their 2022 peak prices.
Nationally, since the peak in June 2022, the Freddie Mac’s National Home Price Index now reports a 5.5% Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA) decline in home values through January, with the Case-Shiller Home Price Index reporting a 4.4% NSA decline through December.
Months supply of new construction homes remains elevated at 7.9 months supply nationally through January, with Weld and Larimer county posting 6.3 and 7.0 month supply, respectively, through February.
Strong economic data continues to hamper the Federal Reserve’s inflation fight, with Jerome Powell growing increasingly hawkish about the fact that the Fed may not just forgo an anticipated pause in its rate hikes, but rather look to accelerate their rate hikes beyond what markets have anticipated, even if doing so induces a full-blown recession as a result.
Concerns about the Fed instigating a significant housing correction continue to grow, with Dallas Fed economists now warning that further Fed rate hikes could risk a nearly 20% drop in home values.
The Rate Lock Effect and Pressurized Affordability are severely stagnating the housing market, and its becoming clear that their continued impact could be felt for years to come.
The new year brought with it something we had not seen since before the pandemic: a surprising return to normalcy in the housing market. At both the national and regional level, the “30,000 foot view” of the housing market in January 2023 seemed almost indistinguishable from January 2019 in many regards.
After two-plus years of meteoric price increases, bidding wars and painfully low inventory, the Fed finally managed to slam the brakes on the insanity with a plan to reset the housing market, and as we entered the new year there was renewed hope that the housing market might be finding its bottom as the Fed announced another - albeit smaller - rate hike at just 25 basis points. What’s more, interest rates, which had been trending slowly down through Q4 2022 remained steady, and even continued to dip further into January 2023, ending the month at a not-terrible-considering-the-year-we-just-had 6.17% average rate on a 30-Yr fixed rate mortgage. Better still, January saw a 46.6% MoM increase in single family homes put under contract, which marked the first time since September 2022 that this metric saw MoM gains.
Clinging to the hope that February might be the month they finally get a paycheck, agents and lenders alike wasted little time rushing to the physical and digital town squares to loudly and repeatedly announce that the spring selling season had arrived and all was well as we entered February. Regrettably, their euphoria was short-lived as after a slight uptick in the housing market spurred on by a retraction in mortgage interest rates in late January - combined with the hype surrounding the expectation that the market should pick up because it’s the spring selling season - applications for mortgages plunged every week in February to end the month at a new 28-year low, declining 44% YoY and 48% compared to two years ago.
Needless to say, the secret crying closet that all brokerages have but that no one talks about saw a lot of action the last week of February.
FEBRUARY’S DEMISE WAS PREDICTED
Always the pragmatist, I was quick to point out in January that the signs of life that were generating so much buzz at the time would almost certainly be revealed to be in large part the result of builders eager to brush aside the collapse in Q4 2022 sales numbers and start the new year strong by focusing on the uptick in pending sales in January relative to the collapsed sales numbers at the end of 2022, which in some instances topped nearly 70% for cancellations.
I also pointed out in October 2022 that while we would continue to see modest progress made on inflation through 2022, we should also expect to see a jump early in 2023, which had the potential to suppress the housing market as we entered the spring selling season because of the potential downstream affects of such a scenario on mortgage interest rates.
Fast forward to today, and both of these predications have proved accurate:
Through various incentives and prices reductions, builders played a substantial role in driving the January uptick in housing activity. As always, their efforts were bolstered by breathless headlines in the media regarding the NAR® reporting that pending homes sales had jumped 8.1% for the month with apparently no one stoping to ask, “Up 8.1% from what?” with the answer of course being, “The totally collapsed home sales in December 2022.” Compared to January 2022, pending home sales were still down 24% nationally and 16% in Weld County.
Inflation rose 0.5% in January, more than expected and up 6.4% YoY. The fallout was instantaneous as the housing market, which had already begun to loose steam from it’s January windfall after analysts grew leery of the basis for the January uptick in activity. In turn, interest rates on the average 30-Yr Conventional Fixed Rate mortgage skyrocket from 5.99% on February 2nd to 6.85% by month’s end.
weld county housing stats
Weld County saw 409 New Listings for single family homes in February, a 1.2% and nearly 30% MoM and YoY decrease, respectively. As suspected, the bulk of these listings hit the market early in the month, when Sellers were being bombarded with headlines about a housing market springing back to life and interest rates which briefly broke below 6%.
Despite posting an over 85% YoY increase in inventory of single family homes, there were just 585 Homes For Sale in February, marking a 10.1% MoM decline. Unfortunately, the inventory of homes for sale remains well below historical averages, with many sellers continuing to forgo listing their home for sale rather than taking less for it while also being hampered by the rate-lock affect and pressurized affordability created by sustained increases to the cost of borrowing. Simply put, few Sellers are willing to take less for their home only to be faced with the prospect of then purchasing another home that may decline in value at an interest rate that may well be over double what they are paying on their current mortgage.
As we expected to see given the jump in interest rates in February, the number of single family homes put under contract increased just 4.4% from January, and posted a nearly 17% YoY decline, with 412 Homes Under Contract for the month.
After posting a 30% MoM and 37% YoY reduction in January, Weld County posted 412 Closed Sales in February, representing a nearly 61% MoM increase in this metric, but still nearly 10% below February 2022. We expected to see this metric make significant MoM improvement in February given that January posted a nearly 47% MoM increase in homes under contract. The healthy increase in closed sales is welcome news to a market that saw the single largest YoY decline in closed sales ever recorded in December 2022.
The continued declines in new listings and available inventory, combined with the 155 single family homes that expired or were withdrawn in February brings the months supply to 1.2 Months Supply for the period, a nearly 7% MoM decline, but a nearly 134% YoY increase for the metric. While still painfully low for would-be buyers, this metric has been steadily increasing over the past year after hitting bottom in February 2022 when the metric stood at just 0.5 months supply. This metric would seem to indicate that we remain in a strong Seller’s Market, but remember, this metric only reflects months supply of existing homes. The months supply of new construction is the more reliable leading indicator and, as discussed below, this metric remains well within the realms of a strong Buyer’s Market.
Days on market continued its meteoric rise relative to the past several years. After posting an all time low of just 20 days in April 2022, with the following month posting the all time high for single family median sales price in Weld County, this metric stood at 65 Days on Market in February, marking a 3.2% MoM increase from January’s 31.2% MoM increase. This represents an over 124% YoY increase for the metric and the largest ever recorded.
Finally, transaction volume recovered nicely in February thanks in large part to the uptick in January pending sales, with single family homes accounting for $215,517,726 in Transaction Volume for the period, marking a nearly 64% MoM increase, but still an over 8% YoY decline.
median sales prices
Weld County saw the median sales price of a single family home jump a very respectable 6.2% in February to $495,065. This increase snaps an eight-month streak of declining values and also brings Weld County back into positive YoY home price appreciation, which now stands at 1.7%. You will recall that January 2023 saw YoY values decline 1.0%, which marked the first time since December 2011 that Weld County had failed to post YoY prices gains for single family homes. The recovery in home values also improves our drop from the May 2022 peak, when the median sales price hit $506,518 to -2.26%.
In Larimer County, the median sales price for single family homes declined slightly to $563,991, representing -2.5% YoY decline in home values for the county, and increasing their decline from the April 2022 peak of $614,783 to -8.26%.
In Boulder County, the median sales price for single family homes jumped to $835,000. Still, this represents a -3.5% YoY decline in home values, but improves their decline from the $970,000 peak in April 2022 to -13.92%.
Looking at other metros in the region, the declines from the peak continue, despite several metros recovering some of their price declines from the previous month. Across the board, declines from the peak prices in 2002 now range from Severance’s -0.32% all the way to Windsor’s -26.8%.
Nationally, since the peak in June 2022, the Freddie Mac National Home Price Index now reports a 5.5% Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA) decline in home values through January. The latest release of the Case-Schiller U.S. Home Price Index shows that home prices have declined for six consecutive months at the national level, with home prices now 4.4% NSA below their peak. While this drop may seem insignificant given the massive 43% price increase from March 2020 to June 2022 that the Case-Schiller reported, it’s worthwhile to note that a drop of 3% or more in Case-Schiller has only ever occurred twice before: the first was in 1990, when the index dropped 3.05% before recovering, and the second was in 2008.
Additionally, the last time prices peaked (July 2006), the Case-Schiller had declined by just 1.95% a year later. This is worth noting given that in the current market, prices have declined 4.4% in just five months. In fact, the current retraction in home prices is occurring faster than at any other point in history.
Notice also that the last crash did not occur overnight. In fact, it took 5 years and 7 months for the market to find its bottom. As such, if we are entering another period of price declines, expect it to take some time.
Chart: FRED
Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC
The obvious question remains unchanged, “Where do prices go from here?” Last month, there were many signs to indicate that the market was making earnest strides towards returning to pre-pandemic behavior. However, I cautioned that in spite of the similarities, it would be a mistake to assume that we were returning to a pre-pandemic market. As we enter the final stretch of Q1 2023, I am inclined to again preach caution to would-be buyers and sellers. Just as I discussed last month, barring some yet unseen variable that would sustain current home values, there remains little - of any - upward support for home values at the moment. In fact, despite the recovery of several on this month’s metrics, I would argue that there are now two additional variables beginning to emerge that may well put further downward pressure on home values in the months ahead, which I will discuss below:
Fed Inflation Fight and Interest Rates
The Rate Lock Effect
NEW CONSTRUCTION
As I have discussed at length before, new construction activity offers the most historically reliable leading indicator regarding future price appreciation. For this reason, I continue to advocate for the need to evaluate the market through this lens. Just as it was in previous downturns, new construction is the canary in the coal mine.
Let us consider the months supply of both existing homes and new homes. Months supply is a measure that tells us how long it will take to clear the existing stock of inventory at the current pace of sales. A higher months supply figure means that there's a growing imbalance between inventory and sales. When inventory remains constrained, sellers tend to gain the upper hand in negotiations, which in turn serves to support home values. It’s little more than a simple supply and demand scenario, whereby home prices are sustained or driven higher by the number of buyers exceeding the number of homes for sale. The market is generally considered balanced when the months supply is 5.0, with less than 5.0 months supply favoring sellers and greater than 5.0 months supply favoring Buyers.
The month supply indicator for existing homes remains at levels which would support the argument that we remain in a strong Seller’s Market. That is, many are inclined to look at the current months supply – which stood at 1.2 months for Weld County single family homes in February – and assume that the number of buyers (the demand) far exceeds the number of homes for sale (the supply) and as such, the law of supply and demand would predict the price of homes to remain steady or increase.
However, this assumption is a red herring because it is employs an oversimplification of the supply and demand cycle while failing to consider the inventory of new construction homes, which is the better predictor of future home price growth.
Nationally, the months supply of new construction homes is currently at 7.9 months as of January 2023. According to Zonda, in Northern Colorado, months supply of new construction at the end of February was 6.3 months in Weld County and 7.0 months in Larimer County. Given these figures, you can see that the months supply of new home data, which is a highly reliable leading indicator for predicting future home price growth, continues to indicate that current supply outweighs demand. What’s more, the spread between the months supply of new homes and existing homes is rapidly diverging, something that has never happened before.
Chart: FRED
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, HUD
Zonda restated their February overview almost verbatim in their March Market Report for Weld and Larimer Counties:
“Demand for homes continued to languish as relatively high mortgage rates exacerbate declines in affordability with record-high home prices … Homeowners and builders are recalibrating expectations … monthly new home sales have fallen below 2019 levels, the barometer year before the pandemic juiced housing.”
What’s more, Zonda reports this month that YoY pending new homes sales have now decreased nearly 70% for the region, with YoY new home closings down over 28% for Weld County and 17% for Larimer County. As such, builders have continued to be quick to offer incentives and price reductions to combat the growing inventory. Taken in whole, this data presents a strong case for potential declines in existing home values in the future. What remains to be seen is how large of a decline we will see, with many data analytics firms still predicting at least a 5-10% peak to trough decline in home values over the next 12-24 months, with some firms predicting regional declines as high at 25% or more.
Finally, looking at Real Home Price Growth, which is an inflation-adjusted measure of the rate which home prices are changing annually, in relation to months supply of new homes allows us to confirm the validity and past performance of months supply of new construction leading indicator and thus, confirm our assertion that it is the more reliable leading indicator of future home price growth:
Chart: FRED
Source: Bank for International Settlement
You can see that the Month Supply of New Homes indicator increased in advance of the 2007 home price decline as well as in advance of the 2013-2014 downturn in real home price growth.
Likewise, it led the rise in real home price growth in 2019. Interestingly, this metric also gives us some indications as to why real home prices did not decline in the 2000s recession: the months supply metric wasn’t showing any indication of a downturn or imbalance between inventory and new home sales.
Fast forward to today and we see that the months supply indicator started to show clear signs of a peak in real home prices at the end of 2020, leading the actual peak in real home prices by about a year - just as it has in the past - and since that time has revealed a staggering imbalance in the months supply of new homes.
With all this, we can definitively confirm that this is a very historically reliable indicator of a coming declines in real home prices and that right now, this leading indicator is strongly signaling a potential for home price declines in the months ahead.
emerging variables to consider
It’s worth taking a moment to consider two additional variables that, while certainly not new to the scene, are beginning to carry enough weight that their influence should be discussed:
The Ongoing Fed Inflation Fight and Interest Rates; and
The Rate Lock Effect & Pressurized Affordability
#1 - The ongoing fed Inflation fight & Interest Rates
I have discussed before the Fed’s plan reset the housing market. Understanding this plan is central to understanding what we are seeing today, so I would highly recommend that you take a few minutes to read about it if you have not already done so. The next evolution in this plan became clearer to us this week when Fed Chairman Jerome Powell gave remarks as part of his mandated semiannual testimony on monetary policy, speaking Tuesday before the Senate Banking Committee then the day after to the House Financial Services Committee.
Heading into the appearances, markets had been looking for the Fed to raise its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points at its meeting later this month, then perhaps two more moves before stopping, with the end point around 5.25%. However, all that changed after Powell’s appearance, during which he cautioned that if inflation data remains strong, he expects rates to go “higher than previously anticipated” and possibly at a faster pace than a quarter point at a time. In light of this revelation, markets now strongly expect a 50 basis point increase in March and the peak, or terminal rate, to hit close to 5.75% before the Fed is finished.
So what changed? Basically, it was the January inflation data plus signs that the labor market remains remarkably strong despite the Fed’s efforts to slow it down. That made Powell, who only weeks earlier had talked about “disinflationary” forces at play, switch gears and start talking tough again on monetary policy.
Unfortunately, this does not bode well for mortgage interest rates. While the Fed does not directly set mortgage interest rates, Fed policy and the Fed Funds Rate have considerable indirect influence over mortgage rates. That being said, if the Fed is forced to bring rates higher in order to combat inflation, we can expect that mortgage interest rates will certainly follow. What’s more, because the market reacts not just to actual rate changes, but anticipated rate changes as well, the mere fact that Powell openly made the statements that he did will in all likelihood impact mortgage rates in the very short term, well before the Fed Funds Rate is actually increased.
And if all that were not enough, consider that the downstream effect that the Fed policy can have on home values is well understood and openly discussed these days. This fact amuses me greatly given that as recently as last October, it was not uncommon for someone like me - who was openly stating my concerns about the lack of support for home values - to be regularly laughed out of the room while being told that low inventory virtually guaranteed that home values could not fall. These days, its not just stunningly good-looking real estate agents talking about a looming housing bubble. To whit, on February 28 economists at the Dallas Fed released a research report entitled, “Threat of global housing slide looms amid rising rates,” in which they warned that US home prices could tumble nearly 20% and that further rate hikes risk an even worse housing correction that what we are seeing now.
If you’re of the mind that the Fed would never promulgate policy that would induce a 20% drop in home values, you would be wise to remember that the Fed’s housing reset is, at its core, not really about housing. That’s because the Fed has only two mandates: maximum employment and stable prices. In other words, low unemployment and low inflation. To that end - and as crazy as it might sound - the Fed will happily sacrifice something like the housing market if it serves the purpose of helping them to control inflation. Housing is nothing more to the Fed than a transmission mechanism in its efforts to project its influence in order to control one of the two things it is mandated to control. As such, a housing correction is simply a means to an end and nothing more as far as the Fed is concerned.
#2 - the rate lock effect & pressurized Affordability
The rate lock effect has been hampering housing activity for the better part of the last nine months, but as mortgage interest rates continue their climb and housing affordability continues to hit new all time lows - all while households continue to face 40-year high inflation, a looming recession (or “actual recession,” as we used to call it), mounting consumer debt, dwindling savings, and all the other wonderful fruits of the various pandemic era policies - the impact of the rate lock effect may be quickly reaching a crisis level.
Historically speaking, home prices usually only fall significantly once the supply of new homes gets high enough that builders are forced to reduce prices, which - after a period of denial - finally forces existing home sellers to cave as well. We are already seeing this play out with builders, and even some sellers have finally realized that in order to sell they will need to cut their price or increase the perks offered to buyers. But in this housing cycle, the rate lock effect is beginning to wreak legitimate havoc on transaction volume.
It used to be that a seller could rationalize giving up their current mortgage interest rate in order to buy their next home, even though the rate on their new mortgage would be higher. The rationale here was that:
The new interest rate was marginally higher and there was a reasonable possibility of refinancing in the future to a rate that was the same, if not lower, than the rate on their current home;
Even in instances where the new rate would be higher, rolling over the equity in their current home could result in an overall lower monthly payment on a more expensive home; and
There was an expectation based on observable data that the value of homes would continue to increase over time, so waiting to buy may result in a net loss even if rates fell, because despite a same or lower interest rate, the cost of the next home would have increased as well.
This rationalization pretty much sums up the sales pitch that every real estate agent in history has used to try to get people off the fence. In fact, it’s so ingrained in them that most of them still try to make the argument work even in the current market. In their defense, this has been a rather sound rationalization for the past 20 years, so I can’t blame them for trying I guess. The problem is, the current market has obliterated this argument and it boils down to the huge swing in interest rates over the past two years.
In July 2021, the average interest rate on a 30 Yr Fixed Rate Conventional mortgage hit 2.78%. Today, rates are north of 7.0% and based upon what we just read above, there is a strong possibility that they will climb. Even if they do not, one thing is true: there is virtually no chance that any of us will see sub-3% rates again in our lifetime. On top of that, according to Redfin, 85% of current homeowners have an interest rate below 5%, and 75% of current homeowners have an interest rate below 4%. For these homeowners, the jump in interest rate on an new home would be astronomical. For these homeowners that want to sell, many are locked into their current mortgage rate, which is a major contributing factor to the steep decline in the number of homes hitting the market, and the number of homes actually selling.
Making matters even worse is the very real problem of pressurized affordability. The combination of spiked mortgage rates and an overvalued market have pushed monthly payments far beyond what many Buyers can afford or are willing to pay. Minimum debt-to-income ratios have caused many Buyers to lose their mortgage eligibility altogether.
These two factors combined have created massive stagnation in the housing market and are effectively beginning to create two classes of people - those who own a home and want to sell but will not or cannot, and those who want to own a home but cannot or will not. As time goes on, sellers who want to sell that become sellers who have to sell, will have little recourse but to reduce their asking price if interest rates remain elevated. As the market continues to stagnate, and existing sellers are forced to compete with new home builders who are willing and able to lower their prices or offer incentives, the need for sellers who have to sell to lower their price will only be exacerbated.
It may be time to recognize that the impacts of both the Rate Lock Effect and Pressurized Affordability may continue to hamper housing market activity for years to come. The problem is, there is little if any recourse to addressing either issue without contemplating massive government intervention and/or a significant reduction in home values.
LOOKING AHEAD
Lat month I said:
“February will be an important month for the housing market as we enter the traditional spring buying season. If the market continues to trend back towards pre-pandemic behavior, look for available inventory to steadily increase through out the month with days on market declining. The lynchpin here will be whether we see median home prices fall further or begin to stabilize.”
As has become the norm it seems, half of that happened and half of it didn’t. Nothing is ever easy these days. While available inventory did increase substantially in February on a YoY basis, it declined from an already lower than average prior month’s inventory and remains well below historical averages. Likewise, days on market trended higher, increasing both MoM and YoY to levels not seen since late 2016. On the upside, median sales prices for both single family and attached homes both recovered nicely in February.
That being said, the elephant in the room right now is interest rates, and to a broader extent the Fed’s war on inflation. Unfortunately, there is little evidence to suggest that we will see much relief on rates in the short term at the moment. With interest rates, we may well be in a classic “It gets worse before it gets worse” situation. Short of an overnight, across-the-board 20+% decline in home values, nothing would do more to help alleviate the stagnation in the market more than a healthy decline in interest rates. Given that neither of those outcomes is highly probable in the immediate future, it will be important to continue to watch the signals coming from both the economic data and the Fed. Should inflation remain persistent or continue to trend higher than expected, the Fed will have little recourse but to double-down on their efforts in order to ensure their mandate is fulfilled. Even if/when the data begins to show that progress is being made here, do not expect the Fed to reverse course overnight. To that end, it would be wise to consider that possibility that current interest rates will be the norm for at least the rest of 2023, and may well trend even higher in the future.
As always, median sales prices will continue to be the primary measure of the health of the market. If prices can hold on to the gains made in February through the next 60-90 days, it would be a signal that buyers are becoming accustomed to higher rates, and would indicate that we may be approaching the bottom on the current correction assuming we can avoid a prolonged recession. If they cannot, than it is anyone’s guess how far we may have to go to find the true bottom, and much of that will depend on the overall economic outlook and the status of the Fed’s inflation battle going forward.
If you are thinking of selling your home in the next 1-6 months: You would be wise to get it listed as soon as possible. Waiting will do nothing but ensure you are competing against a larger supply pool and you may very well be doing so in the face of higher interest rates and lower home values. What’s more, builders will continue to increase incentives as the spring approaches, which will further hamper your ability to compete against new construction homes.
If nothing else, consider wether you want to spend the next 10 years in your current home or the home you’d rather have now. If the market crashes, you’re not going to be able to sell your current home anyway without losing your shirt, so you’ll be stuck in a house you don’t care for just trying to get back to even. If you sell now, at least you get close top dollar. The value of your new home will decline too, but at least it will be a home that you like more than your current one while you wait for the market to recover. The point is, if the market is going to nosedive and your equity is going to evaporate, you might as well ride out the storm in the house you want, rather than the one you don’t.
If you are thinking of buying a home this year: Don’t wait for the crash. For one thing, the crash may never come. Secondly, if and when the crash comes, it will take months - if not years - to play out. Remember, it took five years and seven months for prices to hit bottom the last time around and the only people that maximally benefited were the few that just so happened to buy at the bottom due to luck or circumstance. No one knew we were at the bottom of the market in 2012. It wasn’t until they had the benefit of hindsight that they realized how great of a deal they had gotten. Do you really want to live where you are now for another 5+ years waiting for the bottom of the market? Third, even if prices fall 15% from today’s prices, your monthly payment could still end up being more than it would be at current prices if interest rates continue to climb. Despite rates at 6%, we are still below the average rate for the last 50 years and what’s more, the last time the Fed was dealing with inflation like we are seeing today, mortgage interest rates eventually hit 18.63%. Just to give you an idea of what that would feel like, let’s assume the median home price falls a full 30% from where it is today. So now your $466,000 home only costs $326,000. That would be a steal, right? The problem is, at 18.63% interest on a 30yr mortgage with 20% down, your monthly payment would be $4063 before taxes and insurance. At today’s rate and price, your monthly payment would be $2336 per month.
Also, consider the same advice I have for sellers. If you buy now - even if you're a first time home buyer - and the market tanks, at least you’ll be riding out the storm in a home that you own, rather than paying off your landlord’s mortgage. Plus, the upside of a down market will be an opportunity to refinance at a lower interest rate. This could quite easily translate into a lower monthly payment on a home purchased at today’s prices versus a lower priced home at the bottom on the cycle.
No matter who you are: Finally, do yourself a favor and go read my last article, It Matters Who You Work With. As the market continues to evolve, it’s more important than ever before to make sure you’re working with an agent that is actually competent. This isn’t 2021, so hiring your hairdresser to sell your house isn’t going to cut it anymore. And if you’re a buyer, you should probably make sure that the agent you hire isn’t going to let you buy a lemon because even though they like you, they’d like a paycheck more.
In the meantime, stay warm!
Not all agents are the same and interviewing an agent is not something you should take lightly. Your home is one of the biggest financial transactions that you will ever make. You owe it to yourself to hire someone that will treat it that way.