Over the last couple of months I have noticed that most of the homes I have shown to potential buyers have been vacant. In fact over the past 6 weeks it was so common to walk into a vacant home that it was a surprise to arrive at a home with furniture in it.
As an agent it is more convenient to show a home that is vacant. You do not have the time pressures that are present when you are showing a buyer multiple homes. If a buyer wants to linger in a house longer it is easy to slow down because you will not be inconveniencing an owner at the following showing if you run behind schedule. However, in the cold of winter here in New Hampshire a vacant house is certainly a lot less appealing to a buyer. Vacant houses are cold, dark and stark and lack the "homey" feel of a house that is lived in.
There are two main reasons that houses are vacant. the majority of vacant homes I visited appeared to be relocations. Obviously sellers in this situation had a better job opportunity in another area and moved out to take a potentially better position. Unfortunately, they were unable to sell the home and are therefore forced to carry the unoccupied home and their new home. the other situation that is casing vacant homes are the foreclosures. These are the homes where the owners were not able to make payments and the bank stepped in and took over. This is an unfortunate situation.
In my opinion the local real estate market is not all that bad. We are in about the same position in terms of number of sales and prices as we were in 2004. At this point I do not see any looming economic problems on the horizon. In fact I am seeing some optimism toward the housing market among buyers. Especially first time buyers who are actually anxious to buy a home. The issue that I see is that all of these vacant homes will tend to keep prices down. The owners of these vacant homes will eventually want to get rid of them. You can only carry a second housing payment for so long before the financial burden wears you down and you drop the price. This means that these homes will end up selling at lower prices which can cause other homes to drop in price to stay within a competitive price range. I do not believe we will see prices appreciate until these vacant homes are sold.
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