Pierce County Market Update- January 2017

According to J. Lennox Scott, CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate, Inc., 2016 was the best year ever for Residential Housing Market.
"The housing market remains frenzy hot on a seasonality basis. In December, the sales activity was substantially higher than the number of new listings." 
Obviously, if there were more sales than new listings, inventory levels dropped.

Overall, that leaves us with a Serious Shortage of homes for sale (about 6 weeks of inventory). No matter who you listen to, this continues to be a Seller's Market.  This doesn't mean you can ask anything you want for your house (Buyer's aren't going to pay much more than a Bank will lend) but it does mean that that a properly presented and priced home will sell at the asking price with minimal concessions in a relatively short period of time 3-6 weeks on an average).

Interest rates (due to a recent hike in the Prime Lending Rate) have slipped from the "Unbelievable" range to simply "AMAZING".  Take a look at the Mortgage Rate Chart to the right and you'll see see the upward trend. That trend, coupled with the other positive financial indicators (Consumer Confidence, Job Growth Forecast, etc.) have activated the "Backlog of Buyers" to make  their home purchase sooner than later (like in the Spring). An increase in interest of just 1% can greatly reduce the Buying Power of a perspective Homeowner. (See my blog post dated 12/21/2016,

Yes, interest rates are going up! What does that mean to YOU?)

 

The bottom line going into 2017 is that if you are planning to sell or buy a home this year, sooner is better than later and NOW is as good a time as any.