Is It Business as Usual for Our 2017 Market?

Colorado Springs Area Real Estate Podcast with Tiffany Lachnidt

Lack of inventory continues to be the story for our market. As you’ll see, whether you’re buying or selling, the time to act is now.

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Welcome to our first real estate market update of 2017!
2016 was a phenomenal year for us in Colorado Springs. Overall sales were up about 12%, and our sales price for December rose about 7.9% compared to December of 2015. The good news is if you did not get your home sold last year, you are in great shape to sell it this year, and you will probably see an improvement in your home value.
As far as market statistics go, if you’ve been following my blog the last couple of years, you know that the story has been all about our lack of inventory. That number has not changed much lately. We’re down again about 28% for active inventory and have about 1,500 active listings currently on the market. We sold 1,200 last month, and we have 1,700 that are currently pending. If you do the math on that, we don’t have enough active listings to keep up with the sales volume that we’ve been experiencing in the last couple of years. Pending inventory is at 0.8%, and that’s another indication of our lack of overall inventory.

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If you did not get your home sold last year, you are in great shape to sell it this year.

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How long will this trend last? When are we going to see things slow down? The truth is, I don’t think we will until we see interest rates rise. I do believe that this is the year we will see a rate hike, but what happened in the past and should happen again after a rate hike is that some of our first-time home buyers get forced out of the market. This segment of buyers creates a trickle-up effect because the homes that they’re buying are from move-up buyers who are moving into more expensive homes.
If you are interested in selling your home, I wouldn’t wait until spring. We’re seeing the same trend this year that we’ve seen the last few years, with really heavy volume happening in January, February, and March. In fact, just yesterday, we saw a six-offer situation involving a home in the upper $200,000 price point, and we’re seeing the same effect in the higher price points, as well.
If you’re a buyer, you shouldn’t wait to jump into the game either. Interest rates are still hovering around 4%, which is phenomenal. While home values are up, your overall purchase power will be much stronger than next year after the expected rate hike.
If you have any questions about our market or have a topic in mind you’d like to see me discuss in a future video, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you!