Last week, Evansville home sellers saw more
than the usual number of reasons to look forward to this spring’s local home sales selling season. It
looked like the opposite of the lengthy real estate “Perfect Storm”
that caused freefall across the national landscape.
Signs pointed to the possibility that we may be
headed into the opposite market conditions. Webster’s Dictionary says the
opposite of ‘storm’ is ‘calm’ – but I don’t think you would callEvansville’s home sales outlook a “Perfect
Calm.” Far from it!
Some of the signs:
-
Falling Inventory. Per the NAR’s Existing Home
Sales Report, there’s a nation-wide shortage of total inventory. By the end
of January, it had fallen another 4.9%: lowest in seven years. Raw unsold
inventory hasn’t been this low in 14 years! Our current month’s inventory is
7.13 months, meaning it would take 7.13 months to sell all listings.
-
Rising Demand. Per last week’s National Association of Home
Builders’ News and Alerts bulletin, “housing demand continues to
return.” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, pointing to buyer traffic that is up
40% over a year ago, states flatly, “We’ve transitioned into a seller’s market
in much of the country.”
-
Buyer Attitude. Also last week, the Conference Board’s Consumer
Confidence Index showed a rebound from January. The ‘Present Situation’
index rose sharply (from 56.2 to 63.3). This remains the only less-than-stellar
point of contention, I think one area could be a tipoff to gathering strength:
the proportion of those expecting their income to rise is now growing, those
expecting the opposite, falling.
If this
spring turns out to be the
opposite of a Perfect Storm for local
home sales, will conditions improve further? Should sellers wait? The falling
inventory measure might suggest otherwise. If the NAR’s appraisal is correct,
now that these trends are consolidating, “…it would seem likely more inventory
would come to market.”
If you are
a local home seller who’s been
waiting and watching for the right moment to enter the Evansville home sales listings, I hope you will
consider giving me a call soon. You can reach me on my cell phone 812-499-9234
or email at Rolando@RolandoTrentini.com
No comments:
Post a Comment