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Price, interest rates & sales continue to drop
Time for William Shatner to Negotiate?
By: Bill Hitchcock
The Crystal Coast real estate market continues to be fantastic-If you are a buyer! The current average sold price of a Crystal Coast home is at $211K. This is averaging the past 30 days and this price is 16% less than the same time period last year. It is 18% less when compared to the 30 day time period before that.
Declining prices generally jump start sales, but not in this case. Sales are off by 31% when compared to last year and down 25% when compared to the month before. And although we have seen a decline in inventory (down 8%) we still have the second all time highest level of inventory to choose from.
According to Bankrate.com the average 30 year mortgage interest rate being offered up in North Carolina Thursday (12/11) was 5.71%. I received an e-mail today from one of our local Crystal Coast lenders that are offering rates as low as 4.75% with no points. As a caveat-This particular lender requires a minimum of a 720 credit score.
Since price, interest rates and sales continue to drop-Does this mean you should wait to buy? Well let me ask you a question- When are one or all three going to rise again? Oops! Trick question-No one knows for sure. This I can tell you-All three-price, rates and sales- are at historic lows. But there is one variable no one ever seems to factor into the equation-Negotiations. Yep-It’s time to do your best William Shatner Priceline Negotiator bit with the seller. But please keep in mind that negotiating does not mean offering up some unwarranted price that is ridiculously low. I have seen that back fire on the buyer by offending the seller and then the seller refusing anything but full offer.
The point I am trying to make is this. Most folks don’t realize the great opportunity that the current market sometimes offers. Most folks keep their eyes fixed on mortgage rates and totally miss the golden opportunity of the current prices and the great potential to negotiate that price and terms to their benefit.
When you say prices are at historic lows - what do you mean by historic? The past 5 years? I'd be curious to know the last year that the average price was $211k. I bet it wasn't THAT long ago.
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