Health & Fitness
Blog: Monrovia Home Sales Prospects - Anything But 'Calm'!
Sales of local homes are brisk with real estate moving into a seller's market
Last week, area home sellers saw more than the usual number of reasons to look forward to this spring’s local home sales selling season. It looked like the opposite of the lengthy real estate “Perfect Storm” that caused freefall across the national landscape in recent years. Signs pointed to the possibility that we may be headed into the opposite market conditions.
Webster’s Dictionary says the opposite of ‘storm’ is ‘calm’ – but I don’t think you would call Monrovia’s home sales outlook a “Perfect Calm.” Far from it! Since the first of the year, homes priced realistically are selling within a week.
Some of the signs:
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Falling Inventory. According to the National Association of Realtor’s Existing Home Sales Report, there’s a nation-wide shortage of total inventory. By the end of January, it had fallen another 4.9%: the lowest in seven years. Raw unsold inventory hasn’t been this low in 14 years!
Rising Demand. Last week, the National Association of Home Builders’ News and Alerts bulletin indicated that “housing demand continues to return.” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, pointing to buyer traffic that is up 40% over a year ago, states flatly, “We’ve transitioned into a seller’s market in much of the country.”
Find out what's happening in Monroviawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Buyer Attitude. Also last week, the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index showed a rebound from January. The ‘Present Situation’ index rose sharply, from 56.2 to 63.3. I think one area could be a tipoff to the gathering strength in confidence: the proportion of those expecting their income to rise is now growing, while those expecting the opposite is falling.
If this spring turns out to be the opposite of a Perfect Storm for local home sales, will conditions improve further? Should sellers wait? The falling inventory measure might suggest otherwise. If the NAR’s appraisal is correct, now that these trends are consolidating, “…it would seem likely more inventory would come to market.”
If you are a local home seller who’s been waiting and watching for the right moment to enter the area home sales market, you may want to act soon. Actually – today might not be a bad time!
