Do Sellers Feel Some Sense Of Anxiety?
The Sun Sentinel reports from Florida. “South Florida home prices posted steady gains in the second quarter, but slower growth would be better for the housing market long term, according to a new report. Two Florida markets, Palm Bay and Port St. Lucie, led the nation with single-family price increases of more than 20 percent. ‘Considering that wages have barely budged over the last few years, prices in some areas are still rising too fast, due to the fact that there’s just not a lot of supply out there,’ said Adam DeSanctis, a spokesman for the Realtors group.”
“Analysts say large investment funds paying cash for homes are pulling out of the region, but there are still enough investors outbidding young professionals and families trying to buy with 3 percent down payments on mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration. First-time buyers often need to increase their down payments to be more competitive with investors, but soaring rental rates make it hard to save the necesary 10 percent to 20 percent, said Jack McCabe, a housing analyst in Deerfield Beach.”
“‘It’s extremely difficult for first-time buyers to save up for a down payment,’ he said. ‘They’re trying to hold on to what they have, let alone trying to make a move.’”
KX News in North Dakota. “While western North Dakota has seen a change of pace after the drop in oil prices, the housing market in the Magic City is still moving–and it still comes with its challenges. Recent Home buyer Jamie Humphries’s new position at the Minot Air Force Base uprooted him from Colorado Springs, a market severely different for a home buyer. Partly because he needs to hold two mortgages while waiting for his family. ‘They’re going to be here in a year. My son is a senior in high school and we didn’t want to pull him out a year for school,’ he said.”
“‘It’s a good time to be buying, it’s a good time to be selling and I think where Minot is at is were people predicted it would be and that’s at a little bit of a correction,’ said Nathan Stremick/ Realtor, Coldwell Banker.”
The Orange County Register in California. “Orange County homeowners are late to the party this year, with a summertime listing spree pushing the inventory of homes for sale to a 10-month high long after buying peaked in early spring. The latest edition of Steve Thomas’ ReportsOnHousing shows the supply of homes for sale rose 27 percent in the 16 weeks from April 9 to July 30. Do they want to cash in on a surprisingly strong market? Or do they feel some sense of anxiety about the future of real estate prices?”
“Thomas hopes sellers entering the market have realistic views about what their homes are worth. ‘Sellers wishing to stretch the price will simply sit on the market until they finally wake up to the reality that they are overpriced and will attract no offers,’ Thomas wrote.”
The Washington Post. “For the past four months, year-over-year increases in the median price for the D.C. region have hovered around 1 percent after jumping 4 percent in December, January and February. Not every jurisdiction is experiencing price increases. Close-in suburbs, with the exception of Alexandria and Montgomery County, are faring better than the outer suburbs. But even some close-in suburbs are seeing price declines. Alexandria’s median price dropped to $489,000 last month from $530,000 in July 2014, a 7.7 percent year-over-year decrease. Montgomery County’s median price fell to $419,900 from $429,000, a 2.1 percent year-over-year decrease.”
The Denver Channel in Colorado. “The feeding frenzy continues for home buyers in the Denver Metro area. However, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors (DMAR), there are more homes available. The study shows there was a 20% increase in new listings at the end of July, compared to the end of June. The DMAR said the abundance of new listings helped ease the average and median sold price of homes from $366,419 in June to $314,900 in July, respectively.”
“Even with the market slightly easing, Denver Realtor Brian Fisher still advises buyers to be ready to purchase when the right house comes along. ‘The market’s loosening a little so the buyers have a better opportunity of purchasing, there isn’t [sic] as many contracts coming in per home and so the sellers tend to be accepting buyers coming in with their price,’ said Fisher. ‘You have to be ready, you know, ready with your lender, ready to purchase to get the contract.’”
WKNO in Tennessee. “Home sales in the Nashville area shot up again in the month of July, approaching the level of activity seen in 2006 during the last housing boom. But condos remain a weak spot. After months of ups and downs, the median price of a condo hit its lowest point this year — $161,000, down $10,000 from the same month last year. Colton Wherry just sold a newish condo in a downtown high-rise. To his surprise, he had some trouble unloading his unit. Ultimately, he sold it for a loss even though he’d intended the purchase to be a short-term investment. He started out asking more than $400,000 and settled for $330,000.”
“While Rhythm is relatively new, even newer condos are being completed in the vicinity. ‘We are competing with a bunch of new stuff that is coming on the market,’ Wherry says. ‘And in addition to that I know Millenials, a lot of them aren’t interested in buying anything right now.’ Wherry says he now understands one reason so many people are choosing to rent instead of taking the risk to buy downtown. ‘I could have rented a decent place — 800 or 1,000 square feet — for about the same price as what I’ve paid for two years owning a unit,’ Wherry says.”
“For Wherry, he’s getting out of condos all together. He just purchased a house out of foreclosure that he hopes to flip for a profit.”
