I was looking in the Sunday Times for something to write about this week. Nothing much of interest. Rhodes wrote about finding a good agent: ask for referrals, credentials, interview 3 that are experts in your area of interest, pick one. Not complicated. Looking for something interesting to discuss in the Times archives, I came across an article from June 6, remembering how weird it sounded when I read it. I even read it aout loud to Diana to see if it made sense to her.
The article is about rising prices while the inventory is growing and sales are slowing. Here is the troubling statement from that article:
“Glenn Crellin, director of the Center for Real Estate Research at Washington State University, suspects it’s because in a softening market, when there’s more to choose from, “buyers are buying more house.” That will raise the median price paid, he said.”
Mr. Crellin’s statement, while theoretically interesting, is a stretch. What we have observed is as simple as your everyday rush hour jam on I-5….literally. From a dead stop on a freeway, one should accelarate slowly, knowing that there may be another stopping point any moment. But there are many that will accelerate excessively only to panic stop or nearly crash when traffic slows again. In the local real estate market there are many sellers that have over-accelerated for the market conditions. Oftentimes, this is based on the news they read today, which is based on information from 60 to 90 days ago. The fact is prices started softening over 4 months ago. Currently, they have nearly flattened out. Except for unique pockets, appreciation has subsided for the time being to normal levels of 3-4% annually. There are many, many overpriced homes currently on the market that “overshot” the market in anticipation of earlier appreciation rates. As these sellers lower their prices it should not be mis-construed that the market is in decline. These are the sellers, and agents, that are slamming on the brakes because they over-accelerated when they initially priced their homes.
For sellers, and buyers, that want to know what the market is doing today, ask your full time Realtor. The news is full of misinformation because, as chronicaled here in several posts, the idea is to sell papers, not help you sell your home.
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