PULSE OF HOME SALES STRENGTHENS
January 26th, 2007
A January 26, 2007 article in the Herald-Tribune may be an indicator of good things to come with regard to the real estate market, particularly in our area. With homes sales still sluggish for most of the nation including the metro areas in Florida, this news shines a very favorable light on our area as “Sales in Charlotte County-North Port handily beat December 2005, rising 19 percent.”
In what traditionally is a slow time of the year for home sales due to the holidays, this news is of particular interest considering the drop of 17 percent for the national market. Personally, I have found January 10-15th as the beginning of the new season here in Florida, regardless of the industry. With home sales picking up earlier than anticipated and a headline on MSNBC stating, “Is the housing market bottoming out,” we may be starting to see a beginning of the long awaited stabilization in our real estate market.
In an interview on MSNBC today (January 26, 2007) David Lereah, NAR’s (National Association of Realtors) chief economist stated that we have seen the worst drop since 1989 however, three quarters of the country is starting to show signs of expansion. He did echo caution for the large metropolitan (metro) areas in California, Florida, Las Vegas, Pheonix and Washington D.C., but continued to say, “With fingers and toes crossed, it appears that we have hit bottom.”
The major reason for the up tick in home sales are huge incentives and lower prices that have been offered by builders and home sellers alike. This certainly follows the advice we have been giving for a long time. Buyers are primarily responding to “attractively” priced homes before they submit a bid, and not making offers on homes they feel are still not competitive in pricing.
Sue Louis, a regional senior vice president for Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate Inc., agreed with David Lereah’s outlook of the market and added (for buyers), “Be prepared to pay a price that may not be as low as you’d hoped, but that just might be your last opportunity because we are beginning to see multiple offers on appropriately priced homes.”
Although we may not be seeing this scenario in our area just yet, my suggestion would be as a seller, to take full advantage of the busiest season of the year and make the price of your home as attractive as possible. While the indicators showed an upswing in sales, it should be noted that home prices were down 3 percent. We still have very high inventory levels of homes, condos and vacant land that will keep prices down, but reducing your price will enable you to move your property faster during this competitive market. Once these levels are lowered we will start to recover from this adjustment period at a faster pace than many other areas, and the result will be higher property prices and more stable growth.