Shift in the Housing Market

For the first time in three years, I am starting to see my clients make offers on houses that have been on the market for more than three days. For what seems like forever, there have been too few houses for the number of buyers. So when a house came on the housing market, buyers had to see it right away and make a very big decision about whether they wanted to buy it in one day. There were pre-inspections so that you could put in an offer with no contingencies and escalation clauses pushing up prices. As you can imagine, it was very stressful for buyers.

Choosing “The” House

But in the past two months, all but one of my pre-qualification letters has been for a house on the market for over a week. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but it is such a different feeling for the clients when they can at least take a breath and really think about this important decision about whether or not this is “the” house. For clients looking for condos, this has been the case for several months. I have even started to see price reductions, especially on condos.

Housing Market Competition

Of course, there is still competition for well-priced and well-maintained houses in great neighborhoods. But this slight softening that I am seeing is a welcome change. It may be just anecdotal, but from what I am reading, other parts of the country are seeing the same movement towards a more sane housing market. However, no matter whether the market is crazy or sane, the best way you can prepare is to contact me for a pre-approval.