Homes are selling at record speed. What does it mean for you as a homeowner, buyer or real estate investor?
While this is normally one of the quietest seasons of the year for real estate transactions, from coast to coast almost 30% of home listings are going under contract in 14 days or less of going on the market.
Experts say we are now experiencing a 12 year low in home listings. New home builders can’t even keep up with orders, let alone courts processing foreclosures. To boot listings of short sale properties are now down in over 60 major metro areas.
Of course, before traditional sellers get too excited there are also homes which continue to rot on the market for being overpriced. Plus, a variety of factors at work could mean this current lack of housing inventory is short lived. Home builders and developers are busy rushing new projects out the door, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have introduced a new deal to let on-time underwater homeowners sell as short sales and rising home values will prompt more owners to sell.
Plus there are plenty more delinquent mortgages out there to become foreclosures. With an average of 600 days to process a foreclosure there are still at least 2 years’ worth of foreclosure homes to come to market and as many as 8 or more years’ in some parts of the country.
The big money; bigger pocketed private equity firms, international investors and builders are also now turning away from a focus on REOs and are getting busy chasing deals elsewhere.
The bottom line is that there will be plenty more opportunities to come for real estate investors. Properties investors do land can be flipped quickly for a premium, while regular home buyers will only continue to lose by waiting. However, at the same time your average seller may not have much to gain by waiting due to equity position, and may well be wise to sell for cash quickly as a short sale as values could still come down in some pockets of the U.S. and higher taxes could affect net proceeds.
