Key Statistics:
Average Days On Market: 75 days
This means your house may sit in an active “For Sale” position for possibly a month or longer before you get an offer to buy. Be patient, there is hope on the horizon.
Inventory Supply: 2.7 months
Inventory of homes on the market dipped a bit from January and is more at a level we saw back in October/November 2018, and it is higher than the 1.9 months on the market back in February of both 2017 and 2018.
Sellers: Buyers will want to come to the table and negotiate an contract when your house is meeting their needs at a value that is fair for the market.“
Median listing price: $399,900
We haven’t seen a median price at this level since mid-summer with July 2018 almost a match to last month’s $399,900, and only August of 2018 saw a slightly higher price than February of this year. The months of September of 2018 to January 2019 were all lower than February 2019.
The review of the market is fairly easy to state, but the issues are complicated. Low interest rates and low inventory are connected to a median price that is higher than last February but prices are rising from January’s $384.900 median price.
The good news is market has taken a solid upward trend in the last decade. I’d say the “dark years” of 2007-2010, and the following years of recovery are behind us. But the amazing increases in prices from 2016 through 2018 were a different kind of scary with both sellers and buyers asking how much could prices increase without a bubble pop like 2008/2009. The recession and market crises back then were real, and we all are still a bit gun-shy these days.
Buyers: …hit the walk-throughs with your Realtor©to get serious in writing the next chapter in your real estate story.
I’m optimistic that we are now entering a more “normal” market from an overall perspective. But people wanting to sell are wondering if they can make a move because they have been seeing the same homes on the market day after day with little change. 75 days on the market is not a same-day “List/Offer” situation that we saw in the past for a lot of sellers. It is more typical in this type of market for us to see a listing go active, have initial interest as the “new-kid-on-the-block” for a week or two, and then things go quiet for a bit until serious offers come in.
This pattern is because buyers are feeling like they want to kick some tires before committing. They want to see if the market will dip so they can get a better price, so they sit and wait for a bit. But summer is coming and that usually means a price bump from a winter market.
I think it will be fair to say that from this point until mid-summer more inventory will be coming on the market. Because of this new blood, prices will increase, the average time on the market will drop a bit, and home sales will increase.
“…consumers shouldn’t expect homebuyers to flood the market again and drive prices through the roof, but it’s also unlikely to be a crisis for home sellers.” Says Devon Thorsby, Editor, Real Estate for US News and World Report
Sellers: Buyers will want to come to the table and negotiate a contract when your house is meeting their needs and at a value that is fair for the market.
Coming into spring, we all can be confident that there will be homes to buy, and also homes wanting to be sold. If you are wondering when to get into the market by listing your home, you can’t make a bad choice in any market unless there are underlying financial reasons keeping you stationary for a while longer. Listing now will get the home ready for summer selling season.
Give the My Real Estate Advisor Team a call and we can get you started on your hunt for that next purchase, and we can help you get the top dollar for your home
