It may come as a surprise, but there is a shortage of good properties on the market
By Amy Dettore, Columnist, The Times
I think it is safe to say that we are no longer experiencing the doom and gloom of real estate sales. Have you been approached or contacted recently by one of us Realtors?
We are desperately announcing that “THERE IS A SHORTAGE OF INVENTORY PEOPLE!!!!”…now is the time to sell…put your house on the market today and if priced right, it will no longer just sit there for months on end…we all seem to have buyers but not enough sellers.
I am actually shocked at the transformation that seemed to happen so quickly. I had to use an escalation clause (remember those?) last weekend when my buyers found a home that they loved and we realized that there were already two other offers on the table!
What?!?
You may think to yourself, there is no way that I would be “fighting” for a house in this market”, but it is here….it’s de ja vu back to 2005. And then it hit me… I’ve been in this business long enough to actually have a deja view moment! Sort of like recently attending my daughter’s fifth grade oldies dance at Hillendale Elementary and realizing that 80’s songs are considered “oldies music”….hmmm.
So, why sell now? There are definitely pros and cons to different markets. In the down market of the last few years, it was a good time to buy up…you take the hit on the sell side, but benefit on the buy side…after all, the high end of the market in our area was hit hardest. If that describes you, then pat yourselves on the back! You weren’t one of those people that waited for the market to bottom out only to realize that you missed the boat!
But if you did wait, then my advice to you is don’t wait any longer! Recent economists are predicting that we will being seeing an increase in mortgage rates… and frankly, it’s truly only a matter of time before those rates creep up again…the Fed won’t keep them low forever!
Just think, for every mortgage percentage point, it affects your purchasing power by about $40,000-$50,000…so if you can buy a home for $500,000 today, then that number becomes $460,000 once the rates go up in like what..9 months? 6 months? 3 months? who knows?
But the fact that there is so little inventory also helps prices..So, we have a market that is moving but with realistic and corrected prices..why not sell or buy or both? I’m just happy I’m selling again.
Amy Dettore is a realtor with Prudential Fox and Roach Realtors and resides in Chadds Ford with her husband and six children. She is involved in the community primarily through her children’s extra-curricular activities and can be spotted around town on any given day with cell phone in hand and child in tow. When asked, “how do you do it, six kids and work?”, her answer has always been, “I don’t know, I just do!”
Amy has been selling Real Estate for the last 15 years and is appreciated by her clients as being a hard worker, honest, responsive and trustworthy. To learn more about Amy, visit her website: www.AmyDettore.com.
