Selling Season?
Amid the primarily bleak news continuing to pour forth about the state of our economy, we are beginning to see glimpses of ‘good” news that could herald the stirrings of a recovery. Oops, hold on. Scratch that.
News reports today are that the recession is catching up with Texas and that more “pain” is forecast. Economists are predicting that unemployment could rise to as high as 8% statewide. Gillespie County is reporting record high unemployment (a relatively respectable 4.3%) and all sales indicators for Fredericksburg TX real estate continue to give heartburn to people like me.
Of course, these are the same economists that utterly failed to “predict” the current mess we find ourselves in so I tend to take all their current predictions with a grain of salt. These folks are about as reliable as weather forecasters in my opinion. I have learned to go with what I see first-hand.
I’ll spare you the frightful statistics on sales, price reductions, etc. and simply say that it is a terrible time to be a seller of real estate but a pretty good time to be a buyer. Financing is available, tax incentives are huge (for 1st time buyers, anyway), sellers are “motivated” and inventory is plentiful.
Be forewarned; however, that agents all over town are psyching their sellers up for the “selling season”, that “traditional” time it is believed that the market is strongest (March to mid-summer). I predict that the pace of price reductions will slow noticeably as false hopes are re-infused into the Fredericksburg market and sellers are encouraged to “hold tight”.
Being the contrarian, I would opine that now is the best time to put your best price forward, to jump ahead of all the other competing properties. Arguably, “the season” does bring out more buyers and today’s buyers are incentivized in ways they haven’t been before (e.g. low interest rates, fear of other investment vehicles, tax credits, etc.) so why not take advantage of that as a seller?
Buyers in this market are all about “deals”, perceived or otherwise. If you truly want to sell, you have to stand out. Standing out today is all about price, price and price. The buyers are there, you just have to get them off the fence.
Buyers, you will be lured off that fence in various ways so be patient, but be ready.
Real estate has always been a great hedge against inflation and other economic woes. While real estate may have led us into the current mess, it is also what will lead us out of it. Values in Gillespie County/Fredericksburg, TX/the Hill Country have held up very well (thank you very much) and should be seen as a sign of the inherent and unchanging desirability of our little corner of the world.
Well, with almost every house we can see on the market being sold at lower price having the right strategy in terms of pricing the house is the best way to go.
I don’t see any motivated seller prices when I surf the net for the Hill Country. The Hill Country real estate market has been in Alice in Wonderland for the past 8 years. Current sellers apparently assume it will continue, which is why buyers like me will sit out this selling season.