When should I buy a home in Pinetop, Arizona?
Is one time of year better than another?
Good Sunday Morning Everyone,
As I was responding to an inquiry I received this morning I got to thinking about what time of year is the best time to buy. How should I advise my prospects?
I think it probably depends a lot on the market you serve. In my market, in the White Mountains of Arizona, probably late fall, winter, or early Spring, would be my answer. We are a second home/resort market and summers are our high season for buyer traffic. As a consequence of this, most sellers are very optimistic in the Spring of the year with high hopes that an unwary buyer will come looking for their getaway cabin and be willing to pay a higher price for it.
2013 was especially bad for this kind of thinking because the news media was going on and on about how there was a shortage of inventory and the bidding wars had started again. I’m sure in some areas that was true. Even in the large metro areas where our buyer traffic comes from, that was the case. With the drying up of foreclosure inventory and many people opting to stay put rather than try to short sell their homes, there were bidding wars going on for those who wanted to buy the few homes that were available.
However, here in the White Mountains area, that wasn’t really the case. The foreclosure market for the most part had dried up long past, and we never dropped to the extent they did in the larger metro areas so while the choices were more limited than they had been, we still had an ample supply of homes. As is the case every year, agents scrambled to get their listing inventories up so they had something to attract the buyers. This market is very buyer driven, so the chase is always on in the early part of the year to get listing inventories up so the buyers will come. It is the “If you build it they will come!” philosophy.
What didn’t happen was the influx of buyers we usually see in the summer months. They came, but not in the numbers we were accustomed to. Many had already done their home shopping in the larger metro areas because they were finally out from under water and were able to sell and move up, move down, or move across town. With the gains in home values, many were able to make a move they had been delaying for their primary residences. Second homes were not a priority. The ones that did come still expected to find a deal and the overly optimistic sellers thought they would cash out with the change in market dynamics. Many went home without making an offer.
Summer waned, DOM (Days on the Market) got longer and longer, and toward the end of the summer sellers started dropping prices hoping to entice those late summer buyers. September was pretty brisk, but interestingly, October is often one of our biggest selling months. However, last year we all know what happened on October 1st. The government shut down, and the ACA (Affordable Care Act) kicked in, and everything came to a screeching halt. Listings expired or were withdrawn in anticipation of winter, and overall the market just stopped for a few months.
Now we are in 2014. Our January weather was very mild and it was a busy month. The listing scramble is on again but many of those homes that fell out of the marketplace last fall are coming out again at much lower prices. I still anticipate that many more will hit again over the next few months at high prices. That is pretty normal in this market.
If I had any council to give prospective sellers it would be to price reasonably. It isn’t 2007, prices are pretty stable, and gaining your retirement from the sale of your property is not an option any longer. The market dynamics are just not there to drive those prices back up to the levels they were at the height and they aren’t going to come again. Too many stops have been implemented for that to happen.
For buyers I would say, get busy now. Grab some of those good deals that are left over from last year’s efforts and the new listings that are coming out early at good prices. The time to buy in our area is off season, not peak season. Sellers are more motivated when traffic is slower. Don those warm duds and get busy now. Then when the summer heat hits you will be set to enjoy your summer season in the high country.
Thanks for reading, until next time…..!
Sandra Paulow, Associate Broker, REALTOR® in Pinetop, Arizona
Comments(1)