What Could Cause Our Imbalanced Housing Market To Balance Out?

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What Could Cause Our Imbalanced Housing Market To Balance Out?
By Scott Rogers • February 12, 2021 Filed In: buying, market, selling
Several of my clients have recently commented on how our local real estate market seems out of balance - with so many more active buyers in the market than there are sellers willing to sell their homes. This dynamic often leads to many buyers making offers on well priced, well prepared, well marketed listings to hit the market in and around Harrisonburg. Sometimes it even leads to buyers offering above (or waaaay above) the list price for homes that they don't want to let slip away. So -- if the market is imbalanced, with sellers having the upper hand, what could help our local market come back into more of a balance? In some ways, it's hard to imagine how we work ourselves out of this imbalance, but here are a few real, imagined or fantastical thoughts... If buyers all took a stand and refused to keep paying more and more for houses and went on strike - this could cause the market - oh, never mind. This one is not very realistic. There are so many buyers in the market that I don't think they're all just going to decide to stop buying. If mortgage interest rates significantly increased, this could affect how many buyers were willing and able to buy, which could cool down the market. If a large new home community launches, that could quickly increase the supply of housing, helping to balance the market. There are several possibly in the works, but it's difficult at this time to gauge how quickly those will come to pass, what will be built, at what price point, etc. If each of the local retirement communities magically create 300 new spaces for the oldest generation to move into, this would likely free up quite a bit of resale inventory, which would help create some market balance. If major local employers departed or downsized, that could cause sellers to sell who wouldn't have otherwise, and could cause buyers to not buy who would have otherwise. Thankfully, however, we seem to be seeing stable and increased local employment so this change doesn't seem likely. In the end, there don't seem to be many certain paths forward that would allow for our local housing market to balance out in any significant way. As such, it seems relatively likely that our local housing market will remain strong and at an imbalance that heavily favors sellers. If you're seeing something I'm not - and have predictions for how our local market might balance itself out in the coming year - let me know! Receive updates from HarrisonburgHousingToday.com via e-mail: Enter your e-mail address: Recent Articles: Mixed Use Developments in Rockingham County, Looking Around and Looking Forward Getting Ready To Sell? Focus On Neighborhood Sales Prices First! Who Is Winning In The Local Real Estate Market? Why Did So Many Homes Sell In Our Area In 2020? As A Home Buyer, You Have Never Had Fewer Options How Quickly Are Homes Going Under Contract? Home Sales Up, Prices Up, Inventory Down in January 2021 If You Might Sell Your Home and Buy A New One In 2021 You Probably Have These Three Questions 72 Apartments In Six Buildings Proposed in the City of Harrisonburg Adjacent To Planned Mixed Use Development In Rockingham County
Have any questions? Contact Scott Rogers at 540-578-0102 or scott@funkhousergroup.com
Based on information from the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of REALTORS® or its MLS, for the period Jan 1, 2000 through Feb 25, 2021 (unless otherwise noted).
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