Somone (Monie) Wilder, a Scottsdale Area Association of Realtors’ Forty Under 40 winner and one of Maricopa County’s highest-producing Realtors, is constantly staying one step ahead of the market. She is adamant about informing her clients of the current market as well as strategizing for and collaborating with them for the best possible transaction, whether they are buying or selling.

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Currently, Wilder calls it a modest seller’s market for most major cities in the greater Phoenix area with the exception of Queen Creek, Maricopa, Buckeye, Casa Grande and Sun City West.

“When I say modest, I mean modest,” she stresses, adding: “The interest rates hovering in the high 6% range is still stifling demand but it’s also causing many sellers not to sell their homes right now.”

This is keeping inventory on the low side so she says sellers looking to sell now are likely sellers who actually need to sell. She advises them to be very reasonable when it comes to their pricing expectations.

“Just because you hear seller’s market doesn’t mean the seller’s market of eye gouging and pledging first born babies like we saw in 2021 and 2022,” she says. “In fact, on average homes are selling for 97% of list price right now, which is a slight improvement from last month but still not the 105+% some were seeing before.”

Bottomline, she says sellers have the advantage now as long as they know how to compete in an environment where buyers are skittish and affordability is challenging due to rates. Wilder is also candid when addressing the buyers, noting their window continues to close and their negotiating power is dwindling as more cities are flipping back to a seller’s market.

“Rates being higher is the only thing holding inventory, and thus prices, where they are right now,” she says. “We have just under 15,000 homes for sale. For context, when the market was in a complete frenzy last spring inventory was under 5,000! Yes, we are long way from that but balanced inventory looks more like 20,000 to 25,000 homes on market.”

She says as soon as rates improve, which is supposed to happen later this year, inventory will drop suddenly and prices will quickly climb. Since December 2022, prices have increased about 3.5% — not a bunch but definitely on the up instead of downswing.

Wilder’s bottom line for buyers: “If buying a home is your goal and you lack down payment or closing costs, it’s very important you jump soon so you can capitalize on some of these homes that have been on market for too long and negotiate funds from the seller to lower the price and/your interest rate… and act now, before you lose the last bit of leverage you have.”

Wilder is available for news story interviews and television segments during which she can share more detailed advice for both buyers and sellers in this market. 

For more about Wilder, visit moniewilder.com.