Low Inventory Might Make Buyers Desperate But They Are Not Likely To Wildly Overpay
Scott P. Rogers
Inventory levels are low in many price ranges. You have heard it for a while now -- buyers have very few choices under $200K, under $250K and under $300K.
For example, in the City of Harrisonburg, here are current options for single family (detached) homes...
- (2) houses under $150K
- (3) houses between $150K and $200K
- (7) houses between $200K and $250K
- (8) houses between $250K and $300K
But -- just because buyers have very few options, and are sometimes DESPERATE to find a house to buy -- that does not necessarily mean they will wildly overpay.
So -- if you have a house that is reasonably valued at $220K -- we should not look at the lack of options between $200K and $250K and decide to list it for $249K.
And if you have a house that is reasonably valued at $160K -- we should not look at the lack of options under $200K and decide to list it for $199K.
Hopefully you get the point here -- just because buyers don't have very many options of houses to buy that does not mean that they will pay ANY PRICE for a house in an under supplied price range. Your home's asking price still needs to be grounded in the reality of what buyers have recently paid for similar houses.
