The past two years have been a wild ride for anyone entering the housing market, including both buyers and sellers. Lack of inventory, record low mortgage rates, spiking prices reach new highs every month, and there’s still plenty of track left. Some say the 2022 market will be much the same, others expect a crash of some kind, and only time will tell how it will develop.
We all know the cause of the severe housing shortage; sellers unwilling to open their homes to groups of strangers who may or may not be carrying COVID-19, lack of workers in all areas of housing-related supply chains, a lack of supplies, and exorbitant prices. On top of all that, record low mortgage rates spurring buyers to jump on grabbing up the little supply that was present, including investors who were able to buy multiple properties.
A recent study by Realtor.com explored the experiences of sellers from the past year and asked current homeowners about their plans to sell in the near future. What was the experiencing of selling like and could there be signs of an inventory return sooner than anticipated? Let’s take a look.
Prepping a Home for Sale Was Significantly Faster
Under normal conditions, preparing a home for sale is time consuming, including cleaning, repairs, painting, landscaping, decluttering, staging, and more. Over the past year though, home sellers found that level of work unnecessary and over 50 percent prepared their homes for sale in less than a month, with another 20 percent saying they were done prepping in less than two weeks! This was likely due to the rush of buyers willing to forgo contingencies for a quick sale before other would-be buyers came along.
On top of that, and as we all know, sellers found themselves benefitting from the competitive market over the past year. In fact, 80 percent of the survey respondents said they were able to sell their homes at or above the original asking price.
Could Inventory Return This Summer?
For those planning to sell, two-thirds are planning to list their homes by August 2022. It’s possible this could also mean we’ll see a leveling out in the market this summer as sellers gain the confidence to list their homes. The main drive to sell comes from the ageing out of Baby Boomers moving into retirement and Gen Xers becoming empty nesters. These demographics needs have changed and they, logically, want to take advantage of the opportunity to make a profit in today’s market.
If you’re trying to keep up with the fast pace of today’s market conditions, you’ll need reliable data to do so. If you want to be sure that data is current and accurate, you’ll want data powered by The Warren Group. Our is collected straight from the source and processed in-house which means you get it before the competition so you can stay one step ahead. Check out our myriad Data Solutions to keep you ahead of the curve and start by contacting one of our data specialists to discuss which will work best for you.
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