Presidential Elections and the Housing Market

As the presidential election quickly approaches, you may be wondering what it is doing to the real estate market. The history on presidential elections and the real estate market is sketchy at best. In 2020, the 40-year history provided a very slight decrease in prices over that span. How slight? Less than 1%—actually only 0.22%. To give you an idea, that would equate to $1,100 less on a $500,000 home.

However, in 2020 prices increased which was part of coming out of the pandemic. But that increase also negated the extremely minor decrease in home prices over the past 40 years during presidential election years.

Does the presidential election have any impact on the real estate market? Yes, it does…but it is a limited impact. Some people will be more apprehensive to buy or sell due to possible pending changes in policies. However, on a broader scale, even that seems to be mostly limited to the month of November.

The biggest thing is that sometimes buyers or sellers may feel uncertain about entering the market until the ambiguity of who will be leading our country is decided. Policy changes may come after the election. No one likes uncertainty.

The good news is that our country was founded with some incredible checks and balances. People will often complain about the slow pace of government when it comes to making changes. Sometimes that slow pace works as an insulator against catastrophic change.

The biggest change that has been looming on the horizon for a while is the fate of interest rates. I do not think the outcome of the election will make much of a difference in the direction of interest rates as they have already started being reduced and may continue going lower. It’s not likely that interest rates will change quickly. Ultimately, the Federal Reserve will look at the results of the election as one less variable regarding our government’s uncertainty.

Even though the election voting has begun in some places, you may still be anxious about what the final result will be. It’s important to be grateful that you live in a free country and that there will eventually be one less uncertainty in your life. You should feel comfortable about buying or selling a home right now in the current real estate market. History indicates that elections will not radically change the housing market.