May 1, 2017 (STLRealEstate.News) Sellers Market – We’ve just endured the roughest months of the year for real estate and we’re staring down the most popular time of the year to list homes, buy homes, and survey future rentals for the year ahead. In case the stringent supply of homes wasn’t tight enough during the long winter months, it’s about to get even tighter with spring season in full swing. CNBC reports that even though more homes are coming onto the market for the springtime, they’re off just as fast, leaving the supply of homes as problematic as ever. Home prices have now surpassed their last peak, and at the entry level, where demand is highest, sellers are firmly in the driver’s seat.
“I’ve been selling real estate for 25 years and this is the strongest seller’s market I have ever seen in my entire real estate career,” said David Fogg, a real estate agent at Keller Williams in Burbank, California. “A lot of our sellers are optimistically pricing their homes in today’s market, and I have to say in most cases we’re getting the home sold anyway.”
Fogg went on to recall a listing of his that included a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,240-square-foot home in Burbank for $789,000 and had three offers before the first open house even hit that Sunday. In the Los Angeles market today, the price of $789,000 is considered an entry-level home price. The open house, much to the buyers’ dismay, brought over 100 people to the residence. All of them appeared weary of the competition.
Typically, many agents have their clients list homes and apartments a little bit below the asking price to get a lot of attention. This attention is getting homeowners 12 to 16 bids on the location in a matter of days. Properties sold in March were on the market for only 34 days, down from 45 in February and 47 in March of 2016.
