The conventional wisdom regarding the best time to sell a home is to wait until spring. The world is prettier and warmer during the spring and more buyers are out looking for a home. However, when inventory has been low all year, conventional wisdom may be more fallacy than truth.
REALTOR.com recently published their Winter Home Buyer Report, which surveyed 1,300 people who are braving the colder temperatures to find a home, found that home buyers continue to struggle with finding a home because of a lack of properties for sale in their price range.
What’s more, the study found that a quarter of winter home buyers surveyed are looking in the winter because they were unable to find a suitable home earlier in the year.
“This summer and spring home-buying season was particularly challenging for buyers, especially first time home buyers trying to compete with all-cash offers and bidding wars because of reduced inventory,” Realtor.com vice president of corporate communications Alison Schwartz said in the website’s article about the study. “In fact, a quarter of the winter home buyers revealed they are in the market now because they were unable to find a home during this last home-buying season.”
If the buyers are out there looking now, why wait until spring to list your home when interest rates are expected to be higher?
Although it has been reported that mortgage rates are expected to remain low in the short term, the Mortgage Bankers Association expects them to rise in 2014. Home buyers can afford to pay more for a home when the interest rates are lower because their payment will be lower. As interest rates rise, mortgage payments rise. This makes homes less affordable for home buyers, thereby making your home harder to sell.
If you are planning on buying or selling a home in the Pioneer Valley, make your first call to Michael Seward at 413-531-7129. Michael Seward is a Certified Residential Specialist, a Certified Buyers Agent, A Certified Loss Mitigation Specialist, a Certified New Homes Specialist, and Green designee of the National Association of REALTORS®.
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