SW Florida seller’s market fuels rise in home sale prices. Hot home sales and declining inventory along with low interest rates have caused this seller’s market.
Eventually it had to show up in prices. Median home sales increased 9.4% over last year while average prices increased 8.5%. This is July over July numbers, not July over June 2020 numbers. This tells us prices are on the move.
Seller’s Market Fuels Rise in Home Sale Prices
Rising prices are a good thing for home sellers, but not necessarily a bad thing for home buyers. Waiting may be a bad thing for home buyers, but not rising prices itself. The reason is interest rates have helped increase affordability, which means buyers can afford more purchase price for the same monthly payment. The only thing that may hold some buyers back is the larger down payment.
We are seeing buyers asking for closing costs because they are having to put more down payment up due to rising prices. This is one reason buyers should look to purchase sooner than later, because their down payments will keep going up with rising prices.
High Tax States Losing Residents
Secondly, we are seeing buyers purchase in Florida from other states. New York city is losing residents in droves. In fact, you cannot even get a U-Haul to move out of the state right now in New York City due to high demand. Vacancies in New York City are rising fast.
New York City is not alone. It is darned near impossible to grow a business with high taxes, shutdowns, riots, and violence. One of these factors alone puts pressure on businesses and combined it is becoming the fatal blow. Some people speculate these factors may result in the downfall of our cities.
Residents are voting with their pocketbook and they are getting out of Dodge. People want to feel safe and feel like they can live and work in a place with opportunity. Florida is one of those places people are choosing to move to, among others. The SW Florida seller’s market fuels rise in home prices.
What this means for home sellers in Florida is this is the best seller’s market we’ve ever seen. It is always better to sell your home when there are many buyers and few sellers to compete with. Even computer valuation models are picking up on the rising prices. One of the best is www.SWFLhomevalues.com You can receive a free estimate of your home’s values in seconds. The site will even display a confidence score. The higher the confidence score, the more accurate the valuation tends to be.
Getting Top Dollar For Your Home
Getting Top Dollar for your home is a science best left to experienced agents. In this market you are likely to encounter multiple offers if the marketing is done correctly. Experienced agents know how to get the most out of multiple offers and have the wisdom to know which offer to take. One of the deadly sins homeowners make is selecting the wrong offer. Each offer is a gamble, so selecting the right offer is critical. It is not fun to go 45 days into a transaction and find out the buyer or the buyer’s lender cannot perform under the terms of the contract.
We receive offers all the time from inexperienced agents that have no idea the offer they wrote will not fly with the lender. Sellers can pay closing costs, but each loan program is different. We had to restructure a loan the day before closing because buyer did not have minimum amount down and could not benefit from agreed upon closing costs for a repair. I asked the buyer agent to check with the lender before we agreed to the change, and she said she did. She did not realize how something like this could kill a deal. Now she does. It is not her fault; she just did not have the experience to know better.
Therefore, hiring the right agent upfront can make all the difference. We got it done, but it took a lot of work at the last minute.
Always call Brett or Sande Ellis 239-489-4042 Ext 4 to get your home sold Fast and for Top Dollar!
See last week’s article “Closed Home Sales Back on Track After Shutdown”
Seller’s market fuels rise in SW Florida home prices, and it could last awhile with interest rates expected to stay low through 2021.