There are still plenty of (confusing) newspaper headlines about the housing market. From new home permits being down 20% (they are), to the Pinal County housing market cooling (it is), to the Northwest Valley home prices holding their own (they are), one could get confused by it all.
Our basic situation is an oversupply of new home inventory that is being offered with large buyer incentives and Realtor commissions topping out at 8%! A year ago, most builders were not paying any Realtor fees! Now I am seeing almost daily offers of Realtor fees of 6% - 8% with large buyer incentives to boot.
We (the housing market) need to work our way through this excess new home inventory before we get back to "normal" ( defined as the way the market was in 2004). How long will it take to do this? No one that I know of is predicting how long it will take. My own educated guess is no longer that 12 months.
New home permits are down, so builders are reigning themselves in until the excess new home inventory is down. The nice thing is that we still have far more people moving here than are leaving, so there is a continuing demand for housing, both resale and new.
The best indicator of returning to normal will be when I stop receiving the blizzard of emails offering 6-8% Realtor fees. I will definitely let you know when that happens.
Resale homes are selling. I sold one last week in 10 days. However, it was a very very nice home with a heated pool & spa that backed up to a common area. We priced it just below the market and it sold quickly. I have other listings that are languishing a bit.
THERE ARE BUYERS OUT THERE. They are just being choosy now because they can be.
Stay tuned for the next update.
If anyone has specific questions on their home, please email me through my web site at www.freephoenixhomeinfo.com. Or just give me a call at 602-370-1450.
Richard
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for joining in the discussion.
Richard