I am meeting with a Buyer in a week. I am asking a lot of questions, and he is answering. And then he probably felt that I might have forgotten his first email to me and he reminded me,
- Remember that I said I would not consider buying till December or January
There are always properties for sale, no matter what the market is. Life is not stopping. Buyers’ market or Sellers’ market, it only affects how much you pay for the same property.
So, it is no problem with showing today and making a purchase in 8 months. In Buyers’ market you might even get the desired property for less, if the market is falling…
And you would have to pay more for it if the market is warming up.
So, what is our market today and which direction we are heading?
One of my customers came here 3 months ago. He is out-of-state, so for him it was important to first figure out what he likes and where he would want to be. And this is what we did for 2 days.
His problem was that he had calculated everything, and he could only spend up to $250K to make it work for him as vacation property. There were many other parameters, the condo had to generate certain rental income, and whole nine yard…
He loved a unit in The Links in Ponce Inlet. A 2-bed/2 baths fully furnished unit on the 4th floor with pretty good view of the ocean, and the golf course…
And he hesitated… and he left to look at some other coastal areas. He emailed me back in 2 months. He did not find anything that he liked more. He was still in the search mode.
For our area, however, his search might be over. That unit was gone. There are other units, but no such view. The unit with some view is $269K, and no furniture included. Considering that his income stays the same, he is simply pushed out of this market.
And this is only 3 months later.
I do not want to sound alarm, but we seem to notice considerable increase of activity and rising prices.
That still may not be a trend, maybe simply seasonal, too early to say for sure, but on some condos we see a decrease of inventory and prices going up.
Not even that they are going up, but with lower priced units going under contract, and without the influx of new listings, the more expensive stay longer.
We sold a unit in Oceans Six 5 weeks ago, and it was the highest price in several years at $376K.
Now a similar unit is for sale at $485K. No, it is not a new listing, it was sitting there, but in the last year all $200s are gone, and all $300s are today in the place of $200s.
We see the change. We do not know whether there will be enough steam for this market going forward, but the signs are there…
So, no problem looking at condos today, but would you feel OK paying a lot more in 8 months?
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