Is the market giving us a head fake? Before I can answer this question, I should first explain what I mean by ‘head fake.’
If you had talked to me in the late summer/early fall of 2018, I would have said that home prices are falling. In fact, we hit such a lull in the fourth quarter that I was very curious about how the 2019 market would play out. We had seen such a massive shift in not only the number of home sales, but also how long they were taking to sell. At the time, it didn’t look so hot.
But the good news is that in February, we started to see a little bit of a pickup. The inventory for great homes was very limited—yes, there were a lot of homes on the market, but many were overpriced and/or didn’t show well. Homes that were fairly priced and showed well were just flying off the market.
Now, with interest rates being at a 14-month low and employment as strong as it is, we’re actually starting to see the market pick up steam. In fact, the last three homes that my team and I have sold, some of which had been listed with another agent, sold with multiple offers within a week. On top of that, those homes sold for more than what each of the prior homes sold for. This just wasn’t happening in the fourth quarter of last year.
So is our market going through a head fake? I think so. We see prices continuing to rise, and my team and I believe that homes will continue to appreciate through 2019 and maybe even through 2020.
If you’re a seller who tried to sell in the last quarter of 2018 but didn’t have a great experience, my team and I are experts at relisting, rebranding, and selling homes that were previously listed on the market and failed to sell. Reach out to us—we’d love the opportunity to help you succeed in the market this time around. Until then: Happy selling!
