So What's Up With This Market...For Real or Not?
Great Interest Rates! Dwindling Inventory!! Multiple offers!! There are still some good buys at the $150,000 - $170,000 range!! Clark County Washington has been experiencing multiple offers all summer. Our home inventory is dwindling. In January there were 21 months of houses just sitting on the market ready to be purchased. In June, there was only 7.9 months of homes to choose from and now in July there are only 7.3 months of homes to purchase.
Here is a GREAT article by Lynda Eisenman in California that demonstrates that the nation is transitioning!
Have we turned a corner, or is this just another blip in the real estate radar?
Today was another typical day in So Cal real estate in the first-time buyer price range. I began working with a couple last week-end, a CRS (Certified Residential Specialist) referral from another state. They've been renting here for a while and decided it was the right time to buy, and they are obviously not alone.
Last Saturday was the first time we were out together, we viewed eight homes, they narrowed it down in their minds to two of them. Their first choice a 1950's home had room addition issues, two unfinished rooms and no building permits. There was also a question about another add-on room and whether or not it had been permitted years ago. They wanted to speak with their contractor friend prior to submitting an offer. As their agent, this sounded completely normal to me. They called me the next day with questions, I called the listing agent and to my surprise it sold the night before with 10 offers, with apparently no questions asked.
Nest I called on the second choice, newer construction in a PUD, after receiving eight offers the seller decided not to sell after all.
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Fast forward to today, great four new properties (yes only 4 homes in their price range in four different cities) that were non- short sale listings and here are the results:
1. $399,000 - single family home has five offers, owners not making a decision until next week. Who knows by then the offers will double.
2. $390,000 - patio home, 1 offer, but good, it's still available so we can view this one.
3. $399,000 - single family home, 14 offers according to the agent (listed 2 days) and of course over asking price including a 40% & 50% down offers.
4. $379,000 - townhome, ah ha, this one is still available and NO offers, what's up? You guessed it, appointment only with the agent who is just too busy to show it. (I don't even want to get started with my opinon of this one.)
This is the second time today I've experienced this scenario when looking for properties to show. In reality, it's been going on for a couple of months, almost every transaction has been a situation of multiple offers on both sides, listings and sales.
- So my big question is, what's going on?
- Please tell me, are you experiencing the same thing in your market?
- Have we rounded the corner, is consumer confidence improving?
- Is it supply and demand because lenders are holding off on flooding the market with large numbers of REO's?
- Is it the $8,000 tax credit?
- Or are we experiencing the early stages of housing recovery?
I'd love to hear from you.
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