Home-sellers, Are The “Good Times' Really Over?

I am sure if you own a home and hear people talking about the housing market, you are likely to hear talk about how the real estate market is shifting.

What does that mean when you hear the term shifting? 

Do you think of or do you fear that we are moving into a recession like the “Great Real Estate Depression” of 2008? Or are you of the belief that this is just a typical recession and that home prices will more than likely flatten back out?

Tracing back to the 70’s there has only been one significant drop in home value, that was in the “Great Depression” from 2008 through 2011 where in our market of Murfreesboro, TN we saw a depreciation of 14.9%.  That may not really sound like a lot. During that time though, year after year, home prices were definitely on the decline. This drop was led primarily by the fact that 38% of all home sales during that time were either a short sale, foreclosure, or some type of distressed sale.

Moving into where we are today.  If you are a home-seller don’t be alarmed! No matter what the media says they are just trying to get eyeballs.  The fact is that what drives prices is simple economics - supply and demand!  Did you know currently that we at about 25% of the home inventory available in 2008 when the “Great Depression” started?  Our home inventory is still at historic lows; therefor, there is just not enough supply to push home prices down.  So rates going up and prices going up does mean that we are going to crash.  It probably means that there are just going to be fewer home sales.

Here is what I would tell you if you are someone that really needs to sell this home in this current market.  You will sell your home guaranteed if you are priced where you should be because buyer demand is still very very high.  So if you have a $500,000 house and you are looking at the recent neighborhood sales and see that other homes have sold for $480,000 or $490,000 or event the $499,000 range I would tell you this, to get more competitive in the market you would probably want to list your home around $489,000.

That does not mean that is what your house is going to sell for, but if you can create a scenario where more people see it and generate a scenario where you have more interested buyers - you will have a much greater chance of not only potentially running up the price, but also of selling it.  

For someone wanting to sell their home always remember this - the sooner you can sell your home the more money you are going to make!