“It’s the start of the buying season,” says Walter Molony, Senior Public Affairs Specialist with the National Association of Realtors. Molony specializes in tracking industry trends and statistics. He says spring is traditionally the best time of the year to buy property, and the forecast for this season looks no different. As a matter of fact, it’s been several years since opportunities for buyers have looked so good. There are more homes on the market at this time of the year, making it a premium time to close a deal. For buyers, the good news just keeps coming.
“Lots of people wait until spring to put their house on the market because they know the buyers will be there,” says Molony. “Things warm up and it’s a nice time to go out and shop for a house.” According to Molony, this spring the market will favor buyers even more than it has during the last several years. “There’s a unique opportunity right now that hasn’t existed since 2000,” he says. “That is the willingness of sellers to negotiate.”
Sellers and home builders are much more willing to make concessions in many areas, including sale price and terms. This spring, sellers are going to be especially motivated. Once inventories level off, home prices will begin to climb again and the bargaining power may return to the seller. If you wait too long, you could miss out on some great opportunities. You never know when the market will actually bottom out and you don’t want to get caught in the upswing, or even worse, a bidding war with other buyers.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) expects relatively flat activity throughout the first and second quarters of the year, with a notable increase in the second half of the year as higher loan limits are implemented. That means opportunities for buyers will be ripe in the spring. The NAR also predicts that the government’s move to stabilize
the mortgage industry could result in more than 300,000 additional home sales. “Home sales will increase when loan limits increase,” explains Molony. Interest rates are lower and the move to stabilize the mortgage industry should bode well for the housing industry.
In more good news, some areas are still appreciating at a steady pace, making it an ideal time to invest. Real estate professionals say the important thing to remember about real estate is that it’s local, and looking at national statistics can sometimes be misleading. In other words, just because the sky seems to be falling across the nation doesn’t mean there aren’t areas that are still stable.
Cities in states throughout the Southeast are in particularly good shape. The Raleigh/Durham/Cary region in North Carolina has seen steady gains in home prices in the last six to nine months, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). Other notable southeastern cities with appreciating home values include Savannah and Columbus, GA; Florence and Columbia, SC; Knoxville and Chattanooga, TN; as well as several cities throughout Alabama. OFHEO studies show housing prices in all of these cities have seen appreciation of five percent or more.
Interest rates are low and inventory is high. There’s really no better time to get out there and find your dream home in your ideal community. If you’ve been thinking about a few different areas, pick one at the top of your list and make the trip. There are several discovery packages available through this magazine that will allow you to stay at communities in your selected city. Use this unique opportunity to meet with residents and learn just what they think of their community. Do this with at least five communities in the city you’ve chosen, so you can make comparisons and survey more than one option. Do it now, so that next spring, instead of looking for that perfect community, you’ll be living in it.