Potential Homebuyers Face Obstacles In Hot Housing Market

Tulsa's housing market is hot, and area real estate agents said it's all-consuming. They said it's still a sellers' market.

"I think it's the reverse of the Dust Bowl [...] from the 1930s and 1940s when everyone went from Oklahoma to California to find work. And it feels like the reverse is happening. Everyone's leaving that stand and moving back to Oklahoma," said Holly Berry, Keller Williams Advantage.

Oh how times have changed.

"A lot of people from California are selling their homes and they've got that in equity and they're coming here and paying cash for these homes and not having any debt," said Berry.

Holly Berry with Keller Williams Advantage said she doesn't see Tulsa's housing market slowing down anytime soon.

"There's so much growth coming into Texas, that it's actually pushing them out of Texas and they're looking at properties to move to Oklahoma because they can't stand what's happening to their state," said Berry. "The price of everything they have is all going up, so those people are being flushed out of those cities and they're coming to Tulsa because they're looking at the opportunities we have here."

Berry said she has many out-of-state clients that like the cost of living and the ability to work remotely, and believes NE Oklahoma is a geographical gem with lakes, rivers, streams, and opportunities for hunting, fishing, arts, and entertainment.

"[My clients] told me to make a full price, cash offer on their property, sight unseen. They accepted it and they didn't fly in until the next week to look at the property," said Berry.

She said homes are selling before the sign goes up and clients are paying cash.

"Cash talks," said Berry.

Many people are even covering sellers' closing costs.

"Ten to 12 offers still going in on property and people were willing to pay 15 to 20,000 over asking price," said Berry.

Berry has gotten good at writing and reading contracts.

"It's like grading a paper. You get to grade how other agents write an offer and you get to learn a lot on how they submit their offer of what you can take from that to your next skill of writing another offer," said Berry. "You're going in at all different avenues and angles to try to get that property purchased for your client."

Many people are forced to compromise.

"I've put over 2000 miles on my car for this one particular client trying to find them the right property," Berry said.

Much of the market consists of $200,000 to $300,000 homes. Berry said more than 60 homes are worth more than a million as of Saturday and those homes are moving too, depending on the area and amenities.

"It's really hard to tell someone, you know, with interest rates going up their purchasing power is less than what they can afford," said Berry.

Berry said, normally, there's a 7-to-9-month supply of homes, but right now, Tulsa's market has a months' worth.

She said there were about 1,146 homes on the Tulsa market Sunday morning when there would normally be 7,000-9,000 homes.

"If you don't have inventory, you don't have anything to sell," said Berry. "They want to sell their home and move but they can't find another home to move to. So, we're kind of stagnant, and therefore, we've got a demand of buyers for homes and therefore multiple offers going in on the homes and it's becoming a frenzy."

Berry said rentals are also hard to come by.

"I was reading the other day from 2019 the cost of building a home has gone up 42 percent. So, all your new construction is trying to find supplies," said Berry.

Shortages continue to impact new construction costs, but Berry hopes as the price of supplies like lumber goes down, more houses will come on the market.