There is no such thing as a bad market or a good market there is only a buyer’s market, seller’s market, and the shift between the two. I mean if you think about it, it makes sense. When people say it is a bad market, especially real estate agents I want to jump up and down. Who is it bad for? If it is a buyer’s market it is good for the buyer and vice versa.
Back in the middle of ’06 when properties were selling in days with multiple offers, it was considered a great market. Now that home prices are sliding back and homes are taking longer to sell (some homes are just not selling for the price the seller wants), it is considered a bad market. The question that has to be asked is, who is it a bad market for, the buyer or the seller?
A buyer’s market is when homes are taking 7 months or more to sell, a seller’s market is when homes are selling in 5 months or less. The period between is called the shift.
One of the issues we face when the market shifts, and homes go from a few days on the market to 2-3 months people behave as if the world has ended and considered it a buyer’s market when in reality we were still in a seller’s market, but shifting.
When homes were selling for more than list price in a few days, no one considered that a bad market, if you were a buyer it certainly was. Now that inventory is high and interest rates are low and sellers are dealing it is considered a bad market, for the buyer it is great market.
Now for the million dollar question which are we? The answer is depends. Where do you live?
For example if you live in 84121 and you are selling a home between $200,000-249,999 it is considered a seller’s market. Now does that mean any house in that price range will sell? No. It is still a pricing war and a beauty contest. Meaning your home has to be priced better and has to be in better condition than the competition.
To determine how many months supply of homes we have, you simply take the number of active listings and divided it by the number of homes that have sold in the previous month.
Salt Lake County as a whole has 8,214 active listings and in the month of October had 823 closings. That is a 9.9 month supply of homes if no other homes can on the market.
For a report on your particular area contact me.
