After two summers of staycations and home improvements, is the housing boom about to slow down?
It depends on who you ask.
Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, says there is still more demand for home purchases than there are homes on the market, even if sales have slowed slightly.
Home prices likely are going to continue to rise, but not as quickly, he said.
But Robert Dietz, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, says home sales in April fell to the lowest point of the pandemic era.
"While the nation needs additional housing, home sales are slackening as tightening monetary policy continues to put upward pressure on mortgage rates and supply chain disruptions raise construction costs," Dietz said in a news release.
I bring this up because of the news earlier this month that Armstrong Flooring Inc. has entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it seeks a sale. That move seems like an unexpected U-turn after all the big expansions in luxury vinyl tile flooring manufacturing that has happened the past few years.
When it filed for bankruptcy, Armstrong officials cited rising costs that "outpaced its pricing power."
So which side of the supply and demand scale will win out? Guess we'll have to wait and see.