Seattle Area Housing Market: Big Demand, Little Supply

Home buyers in the Seattle area are up against the toughest purchasing prospects in the country.

The Seattle Times cited the monthly Case-Shiller home price index, which showed a 12.3-percent year-over-year increase for single family home prices in the metro area in March. It’s the fastest growth in more than three years and easily outdistances increases in Portland (9.2 percent), Dallas (8.6 percent), Denver (8.4 percent) and Boston (7.7 percent).

Seattle also more than doubles the national average for price gains, which are at 5.8 percent.

Seattle-based real estate company Redfin released its Demand Index on Tuesday, and it shows what buyers are certainly learning the hard way as prime selling season approaches — there just aren’t enough houses available for interested parties.

Seattle is the most inventory-constrained metro, as measured by months of supply, but it also has the third smallest amount of inventory, following Oakland and San Francisco, Redfin said. Seattle posted the largest year-over-year decrease in inventory, down 35 percent from last April. In the same period, the number of Redfin customers making offers climbed by 36.9 percent, an indication that the market is more competitive for buyers this year than it was last year.

“There’s no indication that this market is going to see a drastic increase in supply or a drop in demand, so waiting isn’t an option for a serious buyer,” said Redfin Seattle agent Kyle Moss in the company’s blog post. “People intent on purchasing this season should be discerning and focus on the one or two criteria that are most important to them, like commute time and/or schools. From there, carve out a list of homes that meet your qualifications and work alongside an agent who has experience winning offers in competitive situations to build and execute a competitive strategy that fits your budget.”

That inventory crunch, in a city attracting thousands of new well-paid tech workers to companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Expedia and others, is leading to the highest rate of bidding wars among the cities that Redfin tracks in other hot markers. In Seattle in April, 88.7 percent of homes received multiple offers, outpacing Los Angeles (79.3 percent), Oakland (78.6 percent), San Diego (77.5 percent) and Washington, D.C. (73.9 percent) among others.

The Times said extra offers often drive prices higher, and the typical single-family house in the city last month sold for a record $722,000.

~Kurt Schlosser, Geekwire

Seattle Real Estate Market Update

Windermere’s Matt Deasy comments on the current real estate market in this article:

Still too tight: Limited number of Seattle houses for sale drives prices higher

The number of houses that are for sale in the greater Seattle, while increasing, remains constrained. The result is higher prices.

More houses were for sale last month in the Puget Sound region compared to this time last year, but the inventory was still way too limited, area Realtors said Wednesday.

As a result, the price of houses and condos continues to climb. Snohomish County notched the biggest price hike last month when the median price of sold homes hit $319,950 in July. That’s 10 percent higher than the same month a year ago.

The median price increase 8.3 percent in Kitsap County to $252,250. In King County, the median sales price was $425,000, up 6.5 percent, and in Pierce County last month’s median price was $230,000, a 4.5 percent hike. The numbers were in a Northwest Multiple Listing Service report.

For months, real estate agents have been clamoring for more houses and condos to sell. They’re starting to get their wish, albeit slowly. In the four counties, the number of residences on the market climbed to nearly 14,700 in July, or around 1,550 more than a year ago.

Matt Deasy of Windermere Real Estate in Bellevue said King County is slowly improving supply should alleviate the frenzy among buyers, who are engaging in bidding wars. The frenzy, however, continues for some homes in desirable areas, such as Ballard, Green Lake and North Seattle, agents said.

“Inventory levels are still the main concern in many areas,” said George Moorhead of Bentley Properties in Bothell. He said buyers complain “there just isn’t enough to look at, then when something great does come up there are multiple offers.”

Unlike many previous years, Moorhead said “this year, we have seen weeks of aggressive activity.”

3 Reasons to Sell Your Home this Spring

Many sellers are still hesitant about putting their house up for sale. Where are prices headed? Where are interest rates headed? These are all valid questions. However, there are several reasons to sell your home sooner rather than later. Here are three of those reasons.

1. Demand is about to skyrocket

Most people realize that the housing market is hottest from April through June. The most serious buyers are well aware of this and, for that reason, come out in early spring in order to beat the heavy competition. We also have a pent-up demand as many buyers pushed off their home search this winter because of extreme weather. Sellers in markets where seasonal weather is never an issue must realize that buyers relocating to their region will increase dramatically this spring as these purchasers finally decide to escape the freezing temperatures of the winters in the north.

These buyers are ready, willing and able to buy…and are in the market right now!

2. There Is Less Competition – For Now

Housing supply always grows from the spring through the early summer. Also, there has been a growing desire for many homeowners to move as they were unable to sell over the last few years because of a negative equity situation. Homeowners have seen a return to positive equity as prices increased over the last eighteen months. Many of these homes will be coming to the market in the near future.

The choices buyers have will continue to increase over the next few months. Don’t wait until all the other potential sellers in your market put their homes up for sale.

3. There Will Never Be a Better Time to Move-Up

If you are moving up to a larger, more expensive home, consider doing it now. Prices are projected to appreciate by approximately 4% this year and 8% by the end of 2015. If you are moving to a higher priced home, it will wind-up costing you more in raw dollars (both in down payment and mortgage payment) if you wait. You can also lock-in your 30 year housing expense with an interest rate at about 4.5% right now. Freddie Mac projects rates to be 5.1% by this time next year and 5.7% by the fourth quarter of 2015.

Moving up to a new home will be less expensive this spring than later this year or next year.

Seattle prices higher ~ Severe inventory shortage

Severe inventory shortage sends Seattle-area housing prices higher

The median price of houses and condos that sold last month in King County was 8 percent higher than in March 2013, a new report states.

Homeowners, if you’re thinking about selling, real estate agents have a message for you: Get off the dime already.

A report from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service on Thursday said housing prices in the metro Puget Sound area rose in March compared with a year ago. The main reason is an inventory shortage.

The listing service said that in King County, there’s only a 1.8-month supply of houses and condos for sale. Industry analysts say a four- to six-month supply is needed for a balanced market.

The shortage is less acute in other areas, but supply is still tight. For single-family houses, Snohomish County has a 2.3-month supply, while Pierce and Kitsap counties’ supplies are around 3.5 and 4.5 months, respectively.

Lack of inventory has sent housing prices higher. Compared with March 2013, the median price of condos and houses that sold last month was up 8 percent to $378,000 in King County, and up 9.3 percent to $295,000 in Snohomish County. In Pierce, prices rose 11.5 percent to $222,950. The median price fell 2.4 percent to $225,000 in Kitsap.

In Snohomish County, condos are especially hard to come by. The county has a supply of only 1.8 months. As a result, the median sale price last month was $193,500 — 29.4 percent higher than in March 2013.

If you’re looking for a place where there’s plenty of inventory, head to Ferry County. There, in northeastern Washington, you’ll find a 50-month supply of houses, though there’s hardly any demand. Only one house sold last month, and the price was $82,500, according to the multiple listing service.

                                                                    ~Marc Stiles, Puget Sound Business Journal

 

2013 MLS Annual Review

Brokers report nearly $25.5 billion in 2013 sales

Members of Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported 75,517 closed sales during 2013, surpassing the 2012 volume by around 11,000 transactions for an increase of nearly 17 percent. Measured by dollars, last year’s sales of single family homes and condominiums were valued at nearly $25.5 billion to outgain the previous year by more than $5.5 billion (up 27.4 percent).

Last year’s completed sales included 65,122 single family homes and 10,395 condominiums, as tallied by nearly 21,000 real estate brokers in the 21 counties that make up the Northwest MLS service area.  The total units and dollar volume are the best since 2007 when members registered 82,197 sales valued at $32.3 billion.

The area-wide median price for last year’s sales was $270,000, improving on the previous year’s figure of $245,000 (up 10.2 percent). A comparison by county shows median sales prices ranged from $118,750 in Pacific County to $372,000 in King County.

Prices for single family homes (excluding condominiums) also rose 10.2 percent from 2012, increasing from $255,000 to $281,000. Condo prices jumped 15.3 percent, rising from the 2012 figure of $175,200 to last year’s median price of $202,000.

By one measure, buyers who shopped during 2013 had a bigger selection as members added more than 104,000 listings to inventory during the year. That was an improvement over 2012 when members added 91,359 new listings. However, brisk sales meant the total number of active listings, which averaged 21,946 during 2013, fell below the previous year’s average of 24,604.

During 2013, the area-wide supply, as measured by months of inventory, ranged from a low of 1.95 in March to 3.68 in December. Industry watchers tend to use a 4-to-6 month range as an indicator of a balanced market, favoring neither buyers nor sellers. Supply tended to be tightest in King and Snohomish counties.

Further evidence of a housing recovery is reflected in high-end sales. Northwest MLS members reported 1,621 sales of single family homes priced at $1 million or more, up 45.2 percent from the 2012 total of 1,116 such sales. Condos priced at $1 million and up accounted for another 137 sales, about the same number as 2012 (138 sales).

The highest-priced single family home that sold during 2013 by a member of Northwest MLS was a property in Medina that fetched $9.75 million. A penthouse in downtown Seattle that sold for $6.2 million topped the condo list.

Among other highlights in its annual compilation of statistics, Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported:

• Single family homes accounted for 86 percent of last year’s residential sales.
• Nearly half (49 percent) of last year’s single family home sales were 3-bedroom      homes. More than three-fourths (77 percent) of condos that sold had 2      bedrooms.
• The median price for a 3-bedroom home that sold in 2013 was $250,000. A      comparison by county shows the median price for this size home ranged from      $128,000 in Pacific County to $450,000 in San Juan County.
• Of the condo sales, about two-thirds (64.1 percent) were located in King      County. Within that county, the Eastside edged out Seattle for the largest share (39.7 percent versus 37 percent).
• Last year’s sales included 8,298 newly built single family homes that sold for a median price of $325,000, and 846 condos that sold for a median price of      $350,214.
• A 10-year comparison of median prices of single family homes shows prices      peaked in most counties in 2007. In 2013, Grant County selling prices returned to 2007 levels, Okanogan prices were at 96.7 percent of 2007 prices, and King County prices were at 91.2 percent of 2007 prices. Other counties have not yet reached those levels, but most are experiencing steady gains.
• Prices vary widely among school districts. An analysis of some of the largest      districts in the MLS market area shows single family homes on Mercer Island have the highest prices, followed by homes in the Bellevue, Issaquah, Lake Washington and Bainbridge school districts.

Why 2014 is a Good Year to Buy a Home

If you didn’t buy a home in 2013, you may be kicking yourself now. Home prices climbed nationally an average of 13.6 percent in the past 12 months, according to Tuesday’s release of the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index.

Don’t make the same mistake in 2014, suggests Benjamin Weinstock, real estate attorney and partner at the firm Ruskin Moscou Faltischek in Uniondale, N.Y.

Market forecasters predict that 2014 will be another year of gains for the real estate market, even though the rapid pace of sales in 2013 cooled off a bit at the end of the year. On Dec. 30, The National Association of Realtors said its pending home sales index, based on contracts signed last month, rose 0.2 percent in November, below the 1 percent rise forecast.

Home prices are expected to rise about 5 percent next year, says Weinstock. Higher mortgage rates will dampen the pace of both sales and price gains, but not bring them to a halt. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage is expected to rise from 4.5 percent to 5 percent in the next year.

Even aside from expected price gains, buying a home is almost always a good investment in the long run, says Weinstock. Tax benefits are not to be overlooked.

“When one rents, at the end of the year he or she has a pile of 12 cancelled rent checks,” Weinstock says. “However, the homeowner has a pile of 12 cancelled mortgage checks that are nearly fully tax deductible in most cases.”

~Amey Stone, CBS Money Watch

The Gardner Report, 2014

The Gardner Report, 2014

Now is the time of year when many prognosticators – like myself – start to gaze into the future and attempt to see what the year has in store.

As I look in the rear-view mirror, 2013 can be considered another year of recovery with all major asset classes performing well, admittedly with no little amount of assistance from the debt and equity markets, as well as overall improved confidence in the U.S. economy.

So what am I seeing for this year? Here are my thoughts.

Employment
It was certainly pleasing to see that in the Fall of 2013 – after five long and grueling years – employment in the Seattle metro area managed to return all of the jobs that were lost during the recession. The area shed over 124,000 positions during the recession, but has managed to not only claw all these back, but the current employment level is now 6,200 jobs higher than the prior peak. (Data as of November 2013.)

Although this is certainly positive for the market, I do have a word of caution. Somewhat counter-intuitively, employment growth in the metro area turned negative in the Fall of 2013 and, while this may be just an anomaly, it has certainly put a damper on my exuberance!

That said, I still see 2014 as a year when we will add to our total employment base, but the pace of growth will likely taper. I am looking at total employment rising by 2.5%, adding around 35,500 new payroll jobs to the Seattle metro area.

With this growth, the unemployment rate should contract from the current level of 5.6% to 4.8%.

Ownership Housing
Single family resale housing prices bottomed out at the end of 2011 at $340,000. By the end of 2013, the average sale price had risen by 28% to $436,000 which is encouraging; however, this is still 19% below the peak seen in the summer of 2007.

I anticipate that 2014 will continue to bring price growth with resale single family home prices growing by 5 percent – essentially matching the rise seen in 2013 for the combined metro area. Modestly greater price gains will be seen in King County than in Snohomish County, but will still be in the single digits. This slower growth model will be a result of rising interest rates as well as more tapered expectations from sellers. We saw list prices drop through the second half of last year – a necessary move as the relationship between average list price and average sale price was getting strained. As such, average sale price growth slowed and this will continue to be the case in 2014.

Listing activity, although 18 percent higher in 2013 than in 2012, is still not where I want it to be and I am hoping that this year will provide more choice for home buyers. There remains nagging concerns over the so called “shadow inventory”, but I maintain the position that this will not negatively impact aggregated values.

On the new construction front, I believe that we will see home builders support the market with the introduction of additional inventory; however, concerns over rising land values and construction costs will have many remaining wary. Finished lot values almost doubled in 2013 which has caused a somewhat bifurcated market with the national builders holding a significant advantage over the smaller local builders as they have the wherewithal to take down these expensive lots.

Additionally land constraints will continue to influence price and this will continue to be an issue in the new home industry.

Looking at the condominium market, we will continue to see a reemergence, but it is unlikely that we will see any additions to the inventory above the two projects currently under construction. Financing in this world remains tight even though demand for new condos appears to have returned.

Mortgage Interest Rates
Mortgage rates are already on the rise and we are sure to see this continue through 2014 as the Federal Reserve continues to taper its purchase of mortgage-backed securities and treasury bills. The increase in rates will not, however, be abrupt, but rather gradual through the year but I would not be surprised to see the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 5.4% by years’ end.

Before we all start to gesticulate madly that this is the end of the world, let us not forget that interest rates were substantially higher in the past (9% in 1990 and close to 20% in 1982!)

This does, however, add further credence to my belief that home price growth will taper this year as affordability — especially for first-time buyers — gets tested.

he time of year when many prognosticators – like myself – start to gaze into the future and attempt to see what the year has in store.

As I look in the rear-view mirror, 2013 can be considered another year of recovery with all major asset classes performing well, admittedly with no little amount of assistance from the debt and equity markets, as well as overall improved confidence in the U.S. economy.

So what am I seeing for this year? Here are my thoughts.

Employment
It was certainly pleasing to see that in the Fall of 2013 – after five long and grueling years – employment in the Seattle metro area managed to return all of the jobs that were lost during the recession. The area shed over 124,000 positions during the recession, but has managed to not only claw all these back, but the current employment level is now 6,200 jobs higher than the prior peak. (Data as of November 2013.)

Although this is certainly positive for the market, I do have a word of caution. Somewhat counter-intuitively, employment growth in the metro area turned negative in the Fall of 2013 and, while this may be just an anomaly, it has certainly put a damper on my exuberance!

That said, I still see 2014 as a year when we will add to our total employment base, but the pace of growth will likely taper. I am looking at total employment rising by 2.5%, adding around 35,500 new payroll jobs to the Seattle metro area.

With this growth, the unemployment rate should contract from the current level of 5.6% to 4.8%.

 

Number of houses on market in 3-county area edging back up

The number of homes for sale in the first half of 2014 will likely be higher, following one of the worst years in recent history

Here’s the good news: The number of homes for sale in the first half of 2014 will likely be higher, following one of the worst years in recent memory for inventory.

Real-estate analysts track the months’ supply of homes for sale by comparing the number of active listings with the number of pending sales — homes under contracts that have not yet closed. A balanced market is generally one with a four- to six-month supply of homes for sale.

This past March, the supply in all three counties hit its lowest level in at least a decade: one month in King, less than a month in Snohomish and 1.7 months in Pierce, according to data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Veteran real-estate agents said they’ve never seen anything like it.

“The first four months of this year were the best time to be a seller over the past decade,” said Ann Pierson, a John L. Scott broker in Bellevue. “Literally if anything was on the market it was going to sell.”

In Bellevue’s Somerset neighborhood, one of the region’s most sought-after for the local schools, Pierson said last March she’d have about 200 buyers come through on the first weekend she showed a house, with as many as eight bidders.

Early 2013 was the exact opposite of late 2008, which was a buyers’ market: The supply of homes and condominiums peaked at 10 months in King County and 11.3 months in Snohomish County, according to the MLS. Pierce County had an 11-month supply.

Since March’s record low, the supply of homes for sale in the Seattle metro area has steadily climbed.

Not coincidentally, the rate of bidding wars has plunged, according to data from Seattle-based Redfin, an online real-estate brokerage.

In November, about 43 percent of offers submitted by Redfin agents for home shoppers faced competition, down from 75 percent in April.

For the next five years, inventory should gradually grow, Pierson said.

The rebound in home prices has lifted thousands of homeowners out of negative equity, freeing them to sell their houses and wipe out mortgage debt. In King County, one of out six homes with a mortgage was in negative equity at the end of September, down from a peak of one in three in March 2012, according to Seattle-based Zillow, the online real-estate marketplace.

Also, new-home construction is edging back up. Through October, there were 7,560 permits for new single-family homes in the Seattle metro area. That’s up 9 percent from last year, though still well below the roughly 16,000 single-family units added annually before the housing bubble burst.

~by Sanjay Bhatt, Seattle Time

How 2014 Will be Different

Trulia’s Housing Predictions: How 2014 Will be Different

Next year looks to be the year of the repeat home buyer, as worsening affordability discourages first timers and investors; also, the buying process will be less frenzied. Hot markets to watch are primarily in the South, Plains, and Mountain states. Rental activity will swing back toward urban apartments, away from single-family homes.

The housing market continued its uneven recovery in 2013 and will enter 2014 closer to normal than it was a year earlier. Consumer optimism is climbing back: in Trulia’s latest survey, 74% of Americans said that homeownership was part of achieving their personal American Dream – the highest level since January 2010. Even among young adults (18-34 year olds), many of whom struggled through the recession and are still living with their parents, 73% said homeownership was part of achieving their personal American Dream, up from 65% in August 2011. Rising prices over the past two years have been great news for homeowners, especially for those who had been underwater, and the real estate industry has benefited from both higher prices and more sales volume.

At the same time, the effects of the recession and housing bust still sting: the barriers to homeownership remain high, and a few markets – mostly in Florida – still have a foreclosure overhang. Plus, the housing recovery itself brings its own challenges, including declining affordability and localized bubble worries, especially in southern California.

Barring any economic crises, the housing market should continue to normalize. Here are 5 ways that the 2014 housing market will be different from 2013:

1. Housing Affordability Worsens. Buying a home will be more expensive in 2014 than in 2013. Although home-price increases should slow from this year’s unsustainably fast pace (see #4, below), prices will still rise faster than both incomes and rents. Also, mortgage rates will be higher in 2014 than in 2013, thanks both to the strengthening economy (rates tend to rise in recoveries) and to Fed tapering, whenever it comes. The rising cost of homeownership will add insult to injury in America’s least affordable markets: in October 2013, for instance, 25% or less of the homes listed for sale in San Francisco, Orange County, Los Angeles, and New York were affordable to middle class households. Nonetheless, buying will remain cheaper than renting. As of September 2013, buying was 35% cheaper than renting nationally, and buying beat renting in all of the 100 largest metros. However, prices and mortgage rates might rise enough to tip the math in favor of renting in a couple of housing markets – starting with San Jose.
2. The Home-Buying Process Gets Less Frenzied. Home buyers in 2014 might kick themselves for not buying in 2013 or 2012, when mortgage rates and prices were lower, but they’ll take some comfort in the fact that the process won’t be as frenzied. There will be more inventory on the market next year, partly due to new construction, but primarily because higher prices will encourage more homeowners to sell – including those who are no longer underwater.  Also, buyers looking for a home for themselves will face less competition from investors who are scaling back their home purchases (see #3, below). Finally, mortgages should be easier to get because higher rates have slashed refinancing activity and pushed some banks to ramp up their purchase lending. Moreover, the new mortgage rules coming into effect in 2014 will give banks better clarity about the legal and financial risks they face with different types of mortgages, hopefully making them more willing to lend. All in all, more inventory, less competition from investors, and more mortgage credit should all make the buying process less frenzied than in 2013 – for those who can afford to buy.
3. Repeat Buyers Take Center Stage. 2013 was the year of the investor, but 2014 will be the year of the repeat home buyer. Investors buy less as prices rise: higher prices mean that the return on investment falls, and there’s less room for future price appreciation. Who will fill the gap? Not first-time buyers: saving for a down payment and having a stable job remain significant burdens, and declining affordability is also a big hurdle for first-timers. Who’s left? Repeat buyers: they’re less discouraged by rising prices than either investors or first-time buyers because the home they already own has also risen in value. Also, the down payment is less of a challenge for repeat buyers if they have equity in their current home
4. How Much Prices Slow Matters Less Than Why And Where. Prices won’t rise as much in 2014 as in 2013. The latest Trulia Price Monitor showed us that asking home prices rose year-over-year 12.1% nationally and more than 20% in 10 of the 100 largest metros. But it also revealed that these price gains are already slowing sharply in the hottest metros. How much prices slow matters less than why. If prices are slowing for the right reasons, great: growing inventory, fading investor activity, and rising mortgage rates are all natural price-slowing changes to expect at this stage of the recovery. But prices could slow for unhealthy reasons, too: if we have another government shutdown or more debt-ceiling brinksmanship, a drop in consumer confidence could hurt housing demand and home prices. Where prices change matters, too. Slowing prices are welcome news in overvalued or unaffordable markets, but markets where prices are significantly undervalued and borrowers are still underwater would be better off with a year or two of unsustainably fast price gains.
5. Rental Action Swings Back Toward Urban Apartments. Throughout the recession and recovery, investors bought homes and rented them out, sometimes to people who lost another (or the same!) home to foreclosure. In fact, the number of rented single-family homes leapt by 32% during this period. Going into 2014, though, investors are buying fewer single-family homes; loosening credit standards might allow more single-family renters to become owners again; and fewer owners are losing homes to foreclosures to begin with – all of which mean that the single-family rental market should cool. At the same time, multifamily accounts for an unusually high share of new construction, which means more urban apartment rentals should come onto the market in 2014. Urban apartments will be the first stop for many of the young adults who find jobs and move out of their parents’ homes. In short, 2014 should mean more supply and demand for urban apartment rentals, but slowing supply and demand for single-family rentals. Ironically, economic recovery means that the overall homeownership rate will probably decline, as some young adults form their own households as renters. Still, the shift in rental activity from suburban single-family to urban apartments would be yet another sign of housing recovery.

What other reasons will cause 2014 be different? New local markets will take the spotlight. Our top 10 markets to watch are entering 2014 with strong fundamentals, including recent job growth and longer-term economic success, as well as recent construction activity typical of vibrant markets. They are, in alphabetical order:

• Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, MD
• Charlotte, NC-SC
• Denver, CO
• Fort Worth, TX
• Nashville, TN
• Oklahoma City, OK
• Raleigh, NC
• Salt Lake City, UT
• Seattle, WA
• Tulsa, OK

Why are so many of the high-profile markets of 2013 missing from our list? We ruled out markets that were more than a little overvalued according to our latest Bubble Watch, which eliminated most metros in Texas and coastal California. We also struck markets with a large foreclosure inventory (thanks for the data, RealtyTrac), like most of Florida. Our 10 markets to watch, therefore, should have strong activity in 2014 with few headwinds.

~ Jed Kolko, Chief Economist, Trulia

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… to sell a house? There’s always that question whether or not you should keep your house on the market for the holidays. You figure that potential home buyers will be preoccupied with buying gifts, planning parties, cooking meals, and visiting relatives; the last thing on their mind is searching for and purchasing a new home, right? For this reason, many home sellers choose to temporarily remove their home from listing, then wait until the new year to relist.

Before you hold off on listing your home until the new year, consider the benefits of listing your home for sale during the holidays, such as:

• Many home sellers either hold off from selling or take a break from selling during the holidays. Inevitably, the amount of listings on the market drop down, which means less competition for your home. With less competition, you could potentially sell your home faster, for more money. Once the market comes back up in the spring time, a lot of sellers will list their homes all at once for lower prices, which may drive the whole market down.

• Home buyers are generally the most motivated during the holiday season, greatly aiding sellers. Although there will be less buyers looking at homes this time of year, the buyers who do look are more serious about closing. “While the traffic is down, the buyers who are out there — when it’s soggy and dark at 4:45 p.m. — they’re not just poking around for the fun of it,” said Billy Grippo, a broker for Windermere Cronin and Caplan Realty Group. “They’re wanting to buy a house.”

• Looking back on statistics, interest rates tend to drop the most at the end of the year. “If we look historically at interest rates, cyclically we’ve seen drops every December through January,” says Rich Hayden, senior loan officer for Home First Mortgage Corp. “While rates are now at all-time lows, we could dip even lower,” he says. Tyler agrees, “Interest rates have to come up sometime but it won’t be during the holidays.”

• Many people purposely choose to purchase a home before the new year to receive a tax write off. Home buyers who close before the end of the year could be eligible for tax credits, such as deductions for home mortgage interest, real estate taxes, and PMI premiums.

• Large companies normally transfer employees in January. Those relocating usually need to buy a house right away and simply cannot wait.

• In the winter months, homes typically show better. The decorations, smell of cookies baking, and a roaring fireplace all give your home a “warm and cozy” feeling. Just make sure you don’t cover up your homes best features with too much holiday decor. Stick to tasteful and simple decorations and proper staging techniques for the holidays.

• A lot of companies give their employees time off work for the holiday season, which means potential buyers have more time for showings.

• While all the malls and retail stores may be packed, Lenders and title companies aren’t as busy and can process loans faster. “November and December are historically slower months in the mortgage business, so things get done faster,” says Brad Walbrun, a mortgage consultant for A and N Mortgage Services.

• Most become so consumed in buying gifts for their friends and family, that they completely overlook all the holiday sales and specials on home appliances and hardware. Remodeling, decorating, appliance installation and other home services become more available and at less of a premium.

• Late spring and summer are usually thought of as the best times to put a home on the market because buyer demand builds steadily through spring. If you sell your home in the winter, you’ll have your pick of tons of houses for sale in the spring time.

Just because it’s cold outside doesn’t mean the whole housing market comes to a freeze during the holidays!

~showingsuite.com