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We've been following the listings to try to figure out if it's a buyer's market or a seller's market in Williamsburg.
Is this something you can tell from listings, or is there a better way to get information like this?
In January we saw 15-20 listings added most weeks, but only 2-3 marked as "pending" each week. Last week there was only a handful added, and two marked as "pending. The last closing was in December, although that may be due to it being winter. So that would make Williamsburg a buyer's market, right?
What has me confused is the local realtor association posted a prediction for prices to rise a healthy percent this year, which would make it a sellers market. Or am I not understanding it right?
I see prices either staying flat or falling (it seems like there have been quite a few listing with reductions lately.) There are a lot of homes listed for 180+ days. At the same time there is quite a bit of new construction going on and baby boomers are starting to retire, so maybe the market is hotter than I think. And, of course, the fact that this is winter may be complicating things.
So does this sound like a sellers market or a buyers market?
A Sellers market means that homes are selling quick and you may find yourself in a bidding war with other buyers for the same property, and homes sell or go pending within a week of being listed. Sellers have the advantage.
A buyers market means homes are not selling fast and you can get a better deal and offer less than asking price. buyers have the advantage.
What you are mentioning sounds like a buyers market.
While your local real estate organization won't explicitly state what type of market it is, they have tons of data that will let you draw your own conclusions.
Start researching.
whether it is a buyer's market or a seller's market doesn't really matter.
Are you going to buy/sell a house, or not? It might give you some indication of who holds a slight to large advantage, but does it change whether you buy or not? Will you only buy if it's a buyer's market...or sell if it's a seller's market?
For the most part, people make a move when they have confidence about their PERSONAL economic future.
Within ANY market, there are locations and price ranges that are a Buyer's market and others that are a Sellers market. Depends on your budget and location.
whether it is a buyer's market or a seller's market doesn't really matter.
Are you going to buy/sell a house, or not? It might give you some indication of who holds a slight to large advantage, but does it change whether you buy or not? Will you only buy if it's a buyer's market...or sell if it's a seller's market?
Our thinking is if it's a Buyers Market, we can look at a few homes in a certain pricey community that we like that has homes slightly above our budget. We think it would be worthwhile, because we could make an offer $20-25K below the list price and they might take it. All the homes we're considering have been on the market at least 90 days, some since last July. The Seller might refuse our offer, of course, but it would be worth looking if we thought there was a chance.
However, if it is a Seller's Market, there's no point in even looking at these homes because we can't afford the listing prices of the homes there, and in a Seller's Market there'd be no way the seller would accept what we can afford to pay.
This becomes important to us because our house hunting time is very limited, due to living a different city and so having to make a trip each time we want to look at houses, plus we have very busy schedules, which means house hunting trips are difficult to schedule. So, unless we think there's a chance they will take our offer we don't want to use up most of a trip looking at those homes. But if it's a possibility, then we'd like to see those homes first and give it a shot to make an offer. Hope that makes sense.
All the homes we're considering have been on the market at least 90 days, some since last July. The Seller might refuse our offer, of course, but it would be worth looking if we thought there was a chance.
If a home has been on the market for more than 90 days it doesn't really matter what the market is like in general, the market for that home is clearly not hot. If you like them then you should check them out.
Not saying this applies to every case, but my wife and I looked at a house that was on the market for 5 months. It was priced over our budget but we went in $40k below asking, ended up buying for $30k below asking. More often than not it totally depends on whether you have a motivated seller. Also, look at the sale history for the property - would an offer of $25k below asking still give the owner a good return on their investment?
All the homes we're considering have been on the market at least 90 days, some since last July.
Well then, type of market does not matter. These houses are not selling--for whatever reason.
If a house appeals to you--make an offer. What is the worst that can happen?
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