No April fooling....Generally, the spring selling season is the prime time in Residential Real Estate because most families with school aged children like to do their home shopping, close escrow, and get all settled in before school starts! In the Los Angeles area, schools are starting earlier the last couple years in mid August, so it has seemed to push the buying rush forward as well! Last year in February & March of 2013 I was seeing 30+ offers on some of my listings, and competing against even more than that on some of the hottest listings. One home my clients bid all cash $30k over asking, only to get beat out by much higher offers and that particular home sold $130,000 over asking!!
This year, 2014, not so much. Now I am definitely grateful to be extremely busy working on 8 escrows currently, however I am not seeing the frenzy of a year ago. Why? Affordability is decreasing my friends. We saw a 15-20% increase in prices over the past year in the prime micro-markets across Los Angeles. People at this time last year were still locking rates in the 3% range and pricing and inventory were much lower!
The selection of homes for a discerning Buyer to choose from around here has certainly grown, I believe we have over 4 months supply of inventory on the market while in recent history we had less than 3 months supply!
Its funny to me that 4-5% interest rates are considered high lately when historically they are extremely low! It's a great time for Buyers to get out there and negotiate a great deal for themselves with many more homes to choose from and rates where they still are!
Happy Spring 2014 Everyone!!
