I've often said that there's no best time of year to sell your home. That's because there are active buyers looking for homes all year long -- no matter what the weather, no matter what month it is, etc. Homes sell every month of every year.
But as a general rule, there's one great time to sell your home: When there's not much competition in the market!
That's certainly the case right now. The Tri-Cities housing market is very heavily tilted toward sellers right now. If you read our July 2020 market update, you know that our current inventory of available homes is the lowest it's been since April 2019 and a whopping 11% lower than it was at this time last year.
Meanwhile, buyer activity is up despite the pandemic. Home sales in the Tri-Cities jumped 35% from May to June. More homes sold in June than any month this year. People are out there looking at and buying homes ... but they can only do that if we have homes to sell them!
Nationally, the story is pretty similar to what's happening here. Consider these stats:
- The latest National Association of Realtors (NAR) Pending Sales Report (homes going into contract) surpassed last month’s number by more than 44%. Analysts had projected a 15% rise.
- ShowingTime says that appointments to see homes (both virtually and in-person) have increased in every region of the country and are up 21.4% nationwide over the same time last year.
- While buyer activity is surging, the number of listings has fallen to an all-time low. Zelman Associates, in their latest residential real estate report, revealed that housing inventory as a percentage of households has fallen to 1.2%, which is half of the long-term average and lower than any other time in our history.
Bidding wars are up both here in the Tri-Cities and across the country. Two of my most recent listings had 10 and 12 offers, respectively. At the national level, a recent NAR blog post shared this stat:
"On average, there were about three offers on a home that closed in May, up from just about two in April 2020 and in May 2019 (2.3 offers)."
Final Thoughts
If you’re thinking of selling, don’t be worried about putting your house on the market right now. The best time to sell a house is when demand for it is high and supply is low. This is when you'll negotiate your best possible deal.
Despite the pandemic, we've helped about 30 local families buy and sell homes already this year, and we're ready to help you, too. We're following all the required state and CDC guidelines and putting our clients' health and safety at the top of our priority list. And together, we're helping them buy and sell with a smile on everyone's faces!
-Cari McGee
