If you’ve been trying to buy a home in Northeast Ohio sometime in the past 18 months, you may have discovered that suitable properties are extremely hard to find, and when you do find them, they’re often selling at or over the asking price.
This, along with a steady increase in interest rates (up until late last year), has caused homeowners to stop and think more carefully about their next move, especially if the time and effort it takes to find the right home may be longer and more expensive than ever.
So why is this happening? Is it going to continue? To understand this, we need to take a step back and look at how we came to be in this situation.
How Inventory Became A Problem
Did you know that every year around one million homes in the US are deemed no longer livable; becoming vacant and/or scheduled for demolition? This means that for the US to maintain the same number of livable homes each year, homebuilders need to build at least a million new homes.
However, since 2007 there have only been two years where homebuilders managed to build over a million new homes. In some years, they built less than half a million new homes. This means that over the past 17 years, the number of livable homes in the US has dropped by around four million!
And since our population has only increased, partially due to a rise in immigrants coming into the US and putting more pressure on our already taxed housing supply, it has created an inventory crisis. We believe that it will take many years of building well more than a million homes a year to help resolve this crisis.
Our Take On “Your” Position
So how does this all translate for individuals and families looking to make a change in 2024 and beyond?
- If you are JUST Selling a home, and are not looking to buy, then you’re in a great position; you are likely to get more for your home now than at any point in time in the past. You should entertain several offers before agreeing to a deal.
- If you are Buying AND Selling, then you need to see this as a wash; you are likely to pay more for a new home (and may need to consider building one if you can’t find what you’re looking for), but you will also get top dollar for your current home.
- If you are ONLY Buying a home, then you will need to have a comprehensive strategy and should look to work with a real estate agent who can help strengthen your buying positioning because you have advantages others may not.
Helping Buyers Find The Right Home
We at The Amy Team of Realtors in Aurora, OH, can help Buyers in any position find the right home for the right price. We’re the only real estate team to offer the Elite Buyer Club, which includes a unique set of perks that give our customers an advantage in finding a new home, and fast!
If you’re considering buying a new home and looking to hire a real estate agent with the level of experience and available resources to succeed in a challenging marketplace, then we’d love to meet with you. Simply give us a call @ (330) 562-4409 or send us a message via our Contact Us page.