Everything seems to remain the same for many. Life seems to go on as usual. For others, however, there have been a lot of changes. Our local Colorado Springs real estate industry has seen many adjustments as well.
Record Low Number of Listings
We began the year in January with about 250 actively listed existing single family homes. That made home buying very challenging and frankly, not fun for buyers and agents alike. It wasn’t long before we saw the mortgage interest rates lose their coveted position and begin to rise. By May, however, we saw it all begin to catch up with an abrupt deceleration in the market. It went from the fast paced “sell-a-home in 22 seconds” to what seemed like a dead stop.
Newfound Sanity
While it sounds like bad news, it is not. Unless, of course, you wanted to sell your home this year. The deceleration has brought some real sanity to real estate transactions for everyone involved. No longer common are the crazy aggressive tools that buyers hated but found themselves given over to. Today many sellers see only a single offer to work with. And homes are lasting on the market for a month or so and even longer in some cases.
This newfound sanity has changed the home-buying game. And along with that, the rules have changed too. Because of that, more than ever, it’s critical for a home buyer to have an experienced and savvy real estate agent to represent them. Home buyers need an agent who understands the changing market and is willing to dig in and use the proven tactics and strategies that work for the current market. Home buyers need an agent who understands the changing market and is willing to dig in and use the proven tactics and strategies that work for the current market.
What’s Next?
Here in August we are heading towards 1,700 actively listed existing single family homes. Sellers in this market will have the best chance at selling reasonably quick if their home is in tip-top condition looking like they live in a model home all the time. Even more importantly, their home needs to be priced right on. It’s easy to make pricing mistakes based on what a seller needs to net or what they want for the home. The truth is that the sales price is determined by what a buyer is willing to pay in today’s market. An experienced real estate agent can guide a seller on the sales probability of listing over, at or below fair market value.
We don’t know when the inventory will level off, but based on historical data, there’s plenty of room to continue to grow. While everything else is uncertain, one thing that we know for sure is that there will always be people who need to sell their homes and people who need homes to buy.