Carole's Blog

We are seeing this in the Gig Harbor home market now with a neutral supply of homes at a bit more than six months…a far cry from the 3.5 month supply of the second quarter.

The shortage of homes for sale earlier in the year created an imbalance of supply to demand which resulted in double digit year-over-year price increases nationally. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the inventory of homes for sale is now beginning to reach more normal levels. The article reported:

“Housing inventories increased in August and stood just 2.5% below their levels of a year ago, offering the latest sign that more sellers are testing the market after swift home-price gains over the past year.

Nationally, there were 1.98 million homes listed for sale in August, according to a report released Thursday by Realtor.com. That was up by more than 24% from the low point in February and up 1% from July. Inventories have increased for six straight months.”

What about Home Prices?

This doesn’t mean prices will collapse. The inventory levels are still depressed, just improving. As the article mentions:

“While the overall level of homes for sale remains relatively depressed, the report suggests that inventory may have hit a bottom earlier this year after an extended two-year decline.”

However, as we mentioned last week, properly pricing your home in this market can be tricky. You should depend on the advice of your real estate agent.

I see this happening in our Gig Harbor home market. It will be interesting as the economy picks up to see if this trend continues and owners remain in their homes rather than "trading up". Do you think we will all live in our homes longer than before the recession?

Americans are increasingly willing to spend on home renovations, according to a survey that says they are taking on more projects and plan to use more expensive materials throughout the process. Remodeling app Planese outlined in a news release the results of an online survey done with remodelormove.com, in which homeowners were asked roughly 70 questions about their plans to remodel their home or move to a new one. All 5,000 respondents were interested in making some sort of change.



The results indicate Americans are willing to spend 30 percent of their home's value to remodel, up from 25 percent in 2007 and 28 percent in 2010, though home prices were significantly higher in 2007 and lower in 2010 than they are now. People plan to spend an average of about $102,000 to renovate. How homeowners said they'd use that money offers more insight into the consumer mindset.



Based on the survey results, those looking to remodel increasingly plan to hire professionals for the work and use more expensive materials for the renovation. And as far as what they're remodeling, homeowners surveyed in 2013 are undertaking more expensive projects by favoring kitchen updates over bathrooms.

http://bit.ly/18kDA1j