Home affordability is at an all-time low due not only to the drop in home prices but also to the continuing low interest rates. Nevertheless buyers are still not flocking to our office to buy property. Sales are better than at this time last year, but still far below what they were back in 2006. There does seem to be a stabilizing in the housing market. We are not seeing much building when it comes to new housing, and there are new homes still sitting on the market that were built back in 2007 and 2008. Builders are now very cautious and hesitant. When the tax credits ceased we saw a decline in sales, but at least not back to the levels of 2008.
Of course bank owned homes keep trickling out into the market and as best we can tell will keep doing so for the next couple of years. Short sales are also more common as people are forced to attempt to sell their homes for less than what they owe. It is no fun working with people on these short sales as the banks don’t make the process easy.
Sellers are still reluctant to sell their properties for the current market values, of course. Right now I am watching a property for a couple who made an offer that was refused. We were told by the listing broker that if the place hasn’t sold in a few months the sellers may want to get back to us. I will be surprised if someone else offers more for the property than my clients offered, so we are waiting and watching.
When helping clients to price their homes it is difficult to run comparables in the same way that we used to do. Here in Mason county we are not able to pull up enough sold properties from the last 6 months to do a good CMA. What I like to do is not only look for what has sold, but look more closely at what is for sale now in the same area. In other words, look at the competition. This approach is proving to be much better when pricing for a quick sale. I am also very serious with people when talking to them about preparing their property for sale. People need to understand that when they put their property on the market it ceases to be their home and becomes instead a product. They need to stage that property for sale, and get rid of the clutter of personal items.
I’m hearing that there is an increase in refinancing applicaitons and believe that this is where the action is when it comes to mortgage lenders. They are not doing as much business with purchase applications.
Tags: bank owned homes, home affordability, housing market, low interest rates
