Superbowl Sunday is traditionally the beginning of the new spring real estate season. New listings are beginning to be rolled out and those that were temporarily taken off the market during the holiday season are starting to come back on. In our North Shore Chicago market, we have seen a large drop in active listings of single family homes during the past few months.
Some of this can be attributed to seasonal factors, but also, many of the properties that had languished on the market for months and months were either rented or they finally reached a price that was attractive to buyers and were purchased. Many fatigued sellers were happy to finally receive any offer.
We all keep hearing about the “shadow inventory” of REO’s which are going to be unleashed this year and there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence that there may be many new spring listings of properties owned by parties who have thought about selling during the past three or four years but decided to wait to see if prices might improve. These potential sellers have been punished for waiting due to consistent year over year price declines.
The past few years have seen a rush of new listings in January, with sellers attempting to beat the onslaught of other new listings. However, this year, it has not really been the case. There have been very few new listings in January, and due to some early transactions, the level of inventories has stayed somewhat stagnant.
The other side of the coin is that prices, while not appearing to be falling much further, are not showing any signs of rebounding any time soon. Perhaps an extended period of stable prices will be the best medicine for this market.
A further review in a few weeks may present a much different picture. Too soon to tell.
What's your opinion of the upcoming Spring market?
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