It’s time for sellers to face the facts. For good or evil, real estate property values are no longer on the increase, and in fact have fallen to below what they where before 2008 and earlier.
“Pending home sales declined on the heels of a weakening economy and with some buyers waiting for clarity on housing stimulus provisions,” according to the National Association of Realtors®.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the downturn in the economy also weighed in on the data. “Even with many serious potential home buyers on the sidelines waiting for passage of the stimulus bill, job losses and weak consumer confidence were a natural drag on home sales,” he said.
The fact is that real estate values are not what they once were, nor are they favoring the sellers who are expecting to ride the tide of steady increasing value prevalent over the past several years; people are no longer willing (or able) to pay the price demanded by sellers in this current economy.
What sellers must understand is that a bubble was created over the past several years because buyers, with or without good credit, were able to purchase real estate with almost little credibility due to subprime mortgages.
This allowed buyers who didn’t deserve a loan to get loans on property at the entry level, thus releasing sellers to move and purchase property at the next level and so on.
That no longer exists.
Sellers who otherwise enjoyed a horde of buyers due to the trickling effect of subprime mortgages must now face the fact that the only buyers available to them now are those who either have the cash or are good credit risks. And they are looking for good deals.
Here’s the bottom line. Sellers must either get real with the current economical crisis and ask a price that makes sense to these buyers, or plan to stay put in their property. The notion that they might make an ungodly profit, unfortunately, is no longer an option.
If you’re serious about selling, then contact a local qualified real estate agent, and let him or her tell you what a realistic selling price should be. The alternative could result in a lot of effort, expense and imposition on your part without achieving anything.
