Buying homes now vs March & April? (agents, mortgage, housing)
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In a strong market like today, would the same home go for cheaper now as it would around spring?
Houses in my neck of the woods are selling within weeks (or less) of being listed for asking price (or slightly above) even during what is typically a slow time of the year for home sales.
Inventory is rather low here, so it's a bit of a sellers' market regardless of the season.
Check out the recent seasonal prices: The median sales price of homes last winter was more than $250,000—then it jumped up to nearly $267,000 in the spring.4 That means people who bought their homes during winter saved almost $17,000 compared to those who bought in spring—a nearly 7% discount. And hey, if you’re able to knock tens of thousands of dollars off your home purchase, that might make any challenges of buying during the wintertime worthwhile.
"Median" in your example may merely be an indication that additional higher priced homes sold in the time period cited. It in no way proves factually that any specific home sold at a higher price.
Here's how "median" works:
5 property sales:
$100,000. $150,000. $200,000. $250,000. $300,000. The "Median" sale is $200,000.
Add two sales and we see:
$100,000. $150,000. $200,000. $250,000. $300,000. $350,000. $400,000. Suddenly, the "Median" sale is $250,000.
A test:
Which of those sellers gained a higher price because of the higher "Median?"
Spoiler
None can be identified from the data provided.
Data is not anecdotal, and individual homes sell as anecdotal, not as data.
The long term lack of inventory on a year-round basis drives buyers to be working year-round.
About the only time I might hesitate to list would be from December 15 to January 15, but if the property was affordable (i.e., your $250,000) and appealing and ready to go in my market, I would list it and the seller would not be hurt with a winter sale.
Last edited by MikeJaquish; 12-16-2019 at 07:11 AM..
"Median" in your example may merely be an indication that additional higher priced homes sold in the time period cited. It in no way proves factually that any specific home sold at a higher price.
Here's how "median" works:
5 property sales:
$100,000. $150,000. $200,000. $250,000. $300,000. The "Median" sale is $200,000.
Add two sales and we see:
$100,000. $150,000. $200,000. $250,000. $300,000. $350,000. $400,000. Suddenly, the "Median" sale is $250,000.
A test:
Which of those sellers gained a higher price because of the higher "Median?"
Spoiler
None can be identified from the data provided.
Data is not anecdotal, and individual homes sell as anecdotal, not as data.
The long term lack of inventory on a year-round basis drives buyers to be working year-round.
About the only time I might hesitate to list would be from December 15 to January 15, but if the property was affordable (i.e., your $250,000) and appealing and ready to go in my market, I would list it and the seller would not be hurt with a winter sale.
Yep, we put our home in NC on the market just before Thanksgiving last year, and accepted a full price offer before Christmas.
We would gladly have purchased our home in MI in Jan/Feb, just didn't find what we wanted.
"Timing" the RE market feels a lot like "timing" the stock market to me.
It depends on the local market. High demand markets sell all year round. There are some but not all seasonal areas of the country people don't buy or sell unless necessary. But it again it's local market. I've lived in high demand areas warm and cold and slower months don't always mean lower prices. The seller and buyer get what they want.
The biggest question is are you actually in or not in a high demand area, this is where many make a mistake. Same for the type or size of home up for sale. Is it what people really want including product and price.
Can't wait for ideal or perfect conditions for many things in life. I've seen people wait for ideal situations too many time where they never materialized.
Because I get pleasure out of exposing others lack of knowledge with facts.
did Dave Ramsey isolate it to homes that were the same home that sold in winter, and then again in spring? Did he isolate for "similar" homes? Or did he just use the reported median price for each month?
the "first time buyer" market is fairly consistent all 12 months - there's no identifiable factor that says "first timers don't buy as often then". It's also quite true that the "move up" market will be softer than first-time.
And a move up house will quite likely be >$$ than a first time house.
So, if 10 first timer homes sold for $250K in December, and then 10 similar first-time homes sold for $250K in March, I assume you'd agree there was no change in their price.
But in March, the move up Buyers come out. And let's say they bought 0 homes in December, but 11 homes in March, 1 was $300K and the other 9 were $350K.
I got a sassy response so I gave a sassy response.
No. You didn’t.
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