I attended a Coldwell Banker International Business Conference in March of 2007 in Las Vegas, NV and I remember the speaker in one of the presentations talking about the "soft market" and the "hard times" that many parts of the US real estate market were facing. I remember thinking "What is this guy talking about? This is one of our best years ever in real estate in Southern Alberta!" I also remember thinkin
g back to when I was a teenager and in comparison to the US, we were always slow to get new music, technology, economic changes, etc...
Well, the real estate market has definitely changed here in Southern Alberta, but we have yet to see the devastating effects of sub-prime lending and I personally don't think that we will see them to that extent. The latest stats published by my real estate board (the Lethbridge and District Association of REALTORS®) as of March 2008 read as follows:
Total # of Listings (Month) 531 (up 23% from 2007)
Total # of Listings YTD 1474 (up 34% from 2007)
Total # of Expired Listings (Month) 96 (up 159% from 2007)
Total # of Expired Listings YTD 267 (up 218% from 2007)
Total# of Sales (Month) 243 (Down 28% from 2007)
Total # of Sales YTD 604 (Down 21% from 2007)
The number that sticks out quite clearly to me is the increase in expired listings. It seems to me that there are a couple of reasons why this number is through the roof:
1. Sellers are having a hard time letting go of "what might have been" and are continuing to overprice properties.
2. REALTORS® are not doing a proper job of educating sellers that this is a different market and that a different set of rules now apply and we are allowing sellers to overprice their properties.
What can we as REALTORS® do to help ourselves and our clients?
Say's law says, "No good or service will remain chronically unsold, as long as prices remain flexible."
So, all we really need to do is get real about prices. We are not powerless to effect changes within our industry. We are not at the mercy of interest rates, government policy, the weather (insert whatever outside force you want to here). We are the ones who have direct contact with buyers and sellers. We have the power to educate them about the type of market we are in and how each and every one of them can benefit from it as long as they are realistic about it. We have the influence and market expertise to help our motivated sellers be at the correct price when the right buyer walks through.
The market has changed and so must we and the more quickly we can adapt, the faster our market can level off to where it needs to be and then continue on it's ever changing cycle!
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