2013 Real Estate Economic Summit

I recently attended the 2013 economic summit put on by the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors.  One of the speakers was Dr. Lawrence Yun who is the Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors.

Dr. Yun did a presentation on the "Economic and Housing Market Trends and Outlook" which has many good things to ponder if you are curious about what drives real estate values nationally.  Among his points:

• Existing home inventory is near a 13 year low and looks to continue downward
• Months supply of inventory is running at about 5 months for both existing and new homes.
• Shadow inventory of homes in foreclosure or short sale have dropped and locally is significantly better in Virginia than Maryland.
• Housing starts are well below where they need to be to prevent a persistent housing shortage.
• 30 year fixed rate mortgages have been below 6% for 5 years
• Buyers have outnumbered sellers since January 2012
• The number of homeowner households have not grown since 2006 while renter households have grown since 2004, which signifies latent demand for home purchases.
• College debt is approaching $1 trillion nationally and nearly 1/5th of households have student loan debt which could affect ability to purchase a home.

There are many other great facts that I would love to share with you.  I try to keep up with what is happening in our neighborhood, the county, the state and the overall real estate market by attending these types of presentations so that I can better serve my clients.  To see the full presentation click here.

Are Buyers Telling You You Are Over Priced?

The market is a great equalizer.  Although emotions come into play during the actual sale of a home, there is very little emotion when buyers are just looking at homes.  After all, they probably have many to look at and choose from so your house is just one they are looking at.

Your home is your pride and joy and, of course, you want the most for it that you can get.  The buyers on the other hand want to pay the least, but generally buyers and sellers want fair pricing.  If your home has been on the market for several weeks or even months, the market is telling you something.

There are only so many things you can feasibly change about your home.  You can clean, paint, redecorate and have it staged.  There are some things you can't change, like location and style. Assuming you have made your home as attractive as it can be and there are still no offers, the market is telling you something.

Here is an article by G. M. Flisko from House Logic about changing your home price that explains many of these points and adds a few.  It is good reading. Click Here