Crazy 2014 Real Estate Market Update

2014 continues to be a record year, in many different ways. As a buyer or a seller, we are seeing trends in the market that we have not seen in the last decade at least. There are opportunities on both sides of the transaction, but you need to be very focused on how to take advantage of those opportunities.

What I think everyone and their mother knows by now is that inventory is low. As in, crazy low. But an interesting statistic is that pending or under contract sales are down 27.5 percent year to date, and new listings (while still lower than last year) are down only 5.5 percent. What that tells me is that the good properties that are priced well have been picked over, and we are starting to see more listings come on the market that may be over priced as sellers are trying to catch the wave of appreciation. Don’t get me wrong, appreciation has CERTAINLY occurred with the average sales price up 8.4 percent year to date at $311,979 for Fort Collins. But, I think there are more and more sellers (and correspondingly their brokers) who are taking a “let’s see if we can get it” type mentality. While I am happy to help you as a seller get the premium for your home, I think pricing accordingly to your appreciation and not just a gut feeling is important.

On the buying side, with interest rates still low, taking advantage of the properties that are priced appropriately still makes sense in the long term. Year to date the average percentage of sold price to list price is right at 99%, so understanding that beating sellers up on price if they are even remotely close to where they should be on price is in most cases not feasible. As long as you as a buyer are willing to move quickly on good homes and have all of your financing in order, then I still think it is possible for you to find the right home.

If you have any questions, or know of anyone looking to buy or sell a home, feel free to contact me anytime!