I'm looking out my window at what promises to be the first full day of rain all summer. We need it! And it's hard to object, when there's been so much sun for so long. It's a great day for people to do what they haven't gotten done through the sticky season. Procrastination is very easy in hot, humid weather.
Well, that applies to buyers and sellers of real estate as well. We've known for a long time that there is a bell curve to open houses, for example. If the weather is too nasty, people don't come. If the weather is too good, people don't come. We also know that wintery weather causes almost everyone to cancel showing appointments. The height of summer is usually very slow, with few phone calls, although vacations have a lot to do with that also.
So what's the message here? Just as when you travel, you should expect weather delays when you buy or sell real estate. But on a day like today? Grab it and get business done!
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Monday, April 13, 2009
More on the Market
I just gave a press interview on the results of the first quarter in our area. Those results were dreadful. Very little sold, and what sold did so at lower prices. The activity has picked up since then, although those sales won't show up until the second quarter.
What is interesting to those of us in the business, who believe that we are bumping along the bottom, is to guess when the bump will start trending up. Units always increase before prices, and, while prices may continue to go down for a while longer, units should begin to increase. Once activity improves, pent up demand for new housing may cause houses to flood the market, as homeowners seek to trade up or down. That increase in supply will satisfy the still anemic demand for some time to come.
The lesson here is that there is a window, which has already opened in East Rock and Spring Glen, where those contrarians who seek to sell in the face of awful media reports have gotten or are getting surprising high prices. Not much was on the market, and people who needed to be in place for jobs beginning in the summer or fall, or those who needed to move for one reason or another, were competing for just a few houses. Multiple offers, many over the asking price, were common. That may change as people have more choices.
A word to the wise: He who hesitates is lost. List now.
What is interesting to those of us in the business, who believe that we are bumping along the bottom, is to guess when the bump will start trending up. Units always increase before prices, and, while prices may continue to go down for a while longer, units should begin to increase. Once activity improves, pent up demand for new housing may cause houses to flood the market, as homeowners seek to trade up or down. That increase in supply will satisfy the still anemic demand for some time to come.
The lesson here is that there is a window, which has already opened in East Rock and Spring Glen, where those contrarians who seek to sell in the face of awful media reports have gotten or are getting surprising high prices. Not much was on the market, and people who needed to be in place for jobs beginning in the summer or fall, or those who needed to move for one reason or another, were competing for just a few houses. Multiple offers, many over the asking price, were common. That may change as people have more choices.
A word to the wise: He who hesitates is lost. List now.
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