Homes on market slowing, good time to sell
Much of the housing-market slowdown in the Northwest and the country has been attributed to a spiraling of the number of homes for sale, pressuring sellers to lower prices to compete. It’s basic ecomomics of supply vs demand played out in the local housing market. The buyers have had a lot to choose from in the past 12 months, but it appears to be changing slightly.
Since then, the number of homes for sale has fallen off of it’s high’s this summer and early fall 2006. Many homeowners this past year put their homes on the market thinking of the earlier big run-up in sales prices from 2003 to Sept. 2005.
In one striking respect, though, the market environment is changing: Instead of the number of homes on the market rising by several hundred per month, the stock of houses for sale has been dropping by as much each month.
In a new forecast by the National Association of Realtors, existing home sales are expected to rise gradually in 2007, with annual totals comparable to 2006, but new home sales are expected to fall.
About three-fourths of the country will experience a sluggish expansion in 2007, while other areas should continue to contract for at least part of the year, says the NAR.
“Most of the correction in home prices is behind us, but general gains in value next year will be modest by historical standards,” he said. “Buyers, especially first-time buyers, with the combined benefits of seller flexibility and an unexpected drop in mortgage interest rates, have a window of opportunity. These conditions will persist in many areas until early spring when inventory supplies are likely to become more balanced.”
Existing-home sales for 2006 are projected to fall 8.6%, to 6.47 million units. Sales are expected to rise steadily next year to a total of 6.4 million, or 1% lower than this year’s total. via Rismedia
I’ve been predicting this for our own market here in Bellingham WA that as soon as the interest rates started heading down and inventory started going down as well, thats clearly an opportunity for sellers to get in the market. If a seller is planning to buy another home, remember that as tough as this market seems as a seller, you’ll also be a buyer on the back side.
It will be interesting to watch the monthly real estate sales for Bellingham and Whatcom County as we get into the first few months of 2007. By the time we get the Bellingham sales stats and listing stats in for the first couple of months, we should get a clear sign of things to come over the next twelve months.