Low inventory of available homes for sale continues to be a major factor in the Albuquerque area. Despite a couple of slightly encouraging signs during this year to date, in general the trend has been getting worse.
The truth is, of course, that a shortage of homes is a mixture of good and bad news, depending on which end of the real estate kaleidoscope your looking through.
For buyers, it does mean less choice at any given price point and, quite possibly, some difficulty in finding exactly the right specification of home. That said, however, buyer sentiment continues to be amazing, with a keen awareness that the current very low mortgage rates may not last and compromises may need to be made to lock-in a great deal on a home loan before anything changes.
If you're selling, in general the opposite is true. Low inventory means that you have less competition from other homeowners with similar properties, giving you greater market visibility and, crucially, the ability to hold your asking price more robustly. Indeed a well specified and maintained home stands a good chance of attracting multiple offers, possibly going beyond the asking price.
And the even better news for sellers right now is that, with the peak selling season ending, it's unlikely we're going to see any improvement in inventory numbers for the rest of this year, at the same time as demand is likely to remain very high, provided that near historic low mortgage rates persist.
We again encourage you to disregard the total myth that home sales dry up once the summer is out of the way. With mortgages so attractive, we're actually expecting a very active fall and winter period, building on the unusually high activity we saw during this period last year.
Unfortunately, for every seller that accepts this is still a wonderful time to sell, there will be others who will take their home off the market until the new year, regardless of good advice to the contrary. What they are doing, of course, is making life much easier for those sellers prepared to carry on listing, with their absence from the market only making the low inventory conditions even more acute.
Worse still, they will be putting off listing until there might be a very different real estate market in 2017. Mortgage rates have to rise eventually and there's also going to be a new presidential administration, regardless of who wins the election, possibly ushering in new policies that could affect market confidence.
And as we mentioned in Tuesday's blog, we're entering a time of the year when we see some very motivated purchasers, who are looking to be settled in for the holidays. Time is therefore of the essence in getting listed to make sure you're in with a great chance of attracting them.
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