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How to Sell Your Fairfield Connecticut Home in a Buyer's Market - Part 1 of 6

By Gail Robinson

Real Estate Agent with William Raveis Real Estate RES.0772823

February 21, 2012 06:56 AM

1. INTRODUCTION

This is the first installment of a six-part series on Selling Your Fairfield Connecticut Home in a Buyer's Market.

What is a Buyer's Market?

A buyer's market is one in which there are more sellers than buyers. Nationwide we are in a real estate buyer's market, which means according to the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) that there is more than six month's worth of inventory (homes for sale). However, if you look at different locations, neighborhoods, price ranges, and even home styles, some niche markets are doing better than others. Low interest rates and FHA low down payment mortgages have encouraged sales at the low end, downsizers are spurring sales in the mid-range, and at the high end, there are buying niches, such as luxury, waterfront and water view homes.

The real estate industry uses a statistic to determine whether your area is a buyer's market. This statistic is called the Absorption Rate. The Absorption Rate is the number of homes sold in your market area for the past 12 months divided by 12. This tells us how many homes sell per month. From February 1, 2011 to February 1, 2012, 478 single family homes sold in Fairfield, that's an absorption rate of 29.83 or another way to think of it is that 30 homes a month sold in Fairfield CT during that time period.

With 434 single family homes on the market at the current absorption rate, it would take almost 11 months to sell all the homes on the market in Fairfield CT. This means that most homes will not sell during a six month listing period. How can you make sure that your home is one of the homes that does sell?

Positioning your home to sell in this competitive market will be the focus of this six part series:

1. Introduction