You Keep Bidding, And Then You Have Buyer’s Remorse
A report from the Citizen Times in North Carolina. “In the red hot local real estate business, it’s a little taboo to use ‘the B-word.’That’s mainly because everyone has painfully fresh memories of the last housing bubble, which burst with a near-nuclear detonation in 2008, leading to a worldwide recession with impacts that lingered for years. So pardon professionals like Mike Figura, an Asheville market analyst, who is dancing around the B-word in light of the first quarter real estate report. ‘It’s getting a little frothy out there,’ Figura said, noting that he opened his company in 2005. ‘When I started, it did feel similar to what’s going on now, in terms of bidding wars and setting new records each quarter.’”
“‘I don’t know if we’re in a situation where we’re creating bubbles, but we are seeing appreciation in selling prices of about 10-12 percent (a year), and I’m not sure if that’s sustainable,’ said Don Davies, whose firm RealSearch conducts market studies.”
From CBS Detroit in Michigan. “Home prices are on the rise for the seventh straight year with a new survey by Real Comp showing the median price of a home in metro Detroit has risen by $13,000 this year. When will it end? ‘The prices have gone straight up,’ said Jeff Glover is an agent at Keller Williams Real Estate. ‘You’ve got 2011, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 … that’s now seven years of increases in home values. We’re at least a couple of years beyond the point where it normally starts shifting back the other way, normally every five, six years. We won’t find out how long this is going to last until six months after it’s already changed.’”
The Idaho Statesman. “Treasure Valley home values have steadily climbed since the Great Recession, and median prices have surpassed the peaks of the pre-recession housing bubble of the mid-2000s. ‘At the beginning of the year, it used to be one in a handful sold for over the asking price,’ said Mike Brown, owner of the 39-agent Mike Brown Group at Silvercreek Realty in Meridian. ‘Now, it’s three in a handful.’”
“Katrina Wehr, 2017 president for Boise Regional Realtors, said some buyers get caught up in the moment and make hasty bids they later regret, especially if they had previously lost out after offering on houses they had grown attached to. ‘You can get caught up, just like when you’re at an auction,’ Wehr said. ‘You get excited. You keep bidding, and then you have buyer’s remorse.’”
From North Fulton in Georgia. “For at least the last four years in Atlanta the job market has been on fire. People have been moving to Atlanta and homebuilders have had trouble keeping up. The story has been big, but the same – until now. Today, something very different is happening. Inventory levels started dropping again for houses priced under $400,000. And they have started rising for houses priced above $400,000. It is truly night and day.”
“Home builders may be starting to over build the luxury market. For the last several years, because of the increased number of jobs and influx of people into Atlanta, they have had no trouble building higher-end homes and selling them prior to putting a shovel in the ground. Not many builders have been building the sub-$400,000 market. A homebuilder friend of mine told me that he just finished a $450,000+ townhome community in what I consider a very desirable location. And he’s having trouble selling them.”
“If you are wondering why apartments are going up everywhere you look, go try to buy a house under $400,000 and you’ll know.”
The Lane Report in Kentucky. “The Greater Louisville Association of Realtors (GLAR) reported sales up 4.67 percent this year. ‘Our members are still working in a very strong sellers’ market for homes up to $400,000,’ said Allison Bartholomew, president of GLAR. ‘Between $400,000 to $600,000 the market becomes slightly more balanced and over $600,000 we’re in a buyers’ market in most areas due to the influx of new listings.’”
From Mansion Global on New York. “The cost of urban luxury has just gone down. A 4,254-square-foot corner duplex at the Seville has lopped about 40% off of its original asking price of $11.25 million. The six-bedroom, four-and-a-half bathroom Upper East Side apartment is now listed at $6.75 million. Listing agent Thomas Di Domenico attributes the new price to several factors, including a rise in interest rates and the shift in recent years from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market in Manhattan.”
“Mr. Di Domenico also says the property wasn’t marketed correctly when it was first listed at the much higher price in 2014. He and his team have completely restaged the space for buyers who increasingly shop online for real estate. ‘The visuals have to be strong,’ he said. ‘And the property has to match up.’”
