I work primarily with buyers, and the number one thing I have been hearing lately is, “When exactly should I buy to get take full advantage of this buyer’s market? How will I know it’s time?”
As the president of our company, Ron Shuffield, so eloquently put during a recent meeting:
“We will not know the best time until it has passed and prices begin to rise.”
At that point buyers will have missed the boat as sellers begin to raise prices.
One of Mr. Shuffield’s favorite real estate tools is a program that tracks data and gives EWM agents precise numbers and market trend graphs.
This program produces graphs that show inventory (homes on the market) versus sales (closed real estate transactions). The graphs that we have access to show a 15 month span on one report.
This may seem like a long enough span to get a good picture of what the market has done, but as I looked back 28 months to the absolute peak of our seller’s market, I realized all graphs (not just on our program) with a wide range of data have to adjust the size of the bars so all the bars fit on the report – regardless of the difference in numbers.
Suddenly, I understood why although the numbers made a huge impression on me, the graphs didn’t seem to reflect the activity in the market.
I took all the data from April 2005 ( month of lowest inventory with high sales) to August 2008 (latest market data) and produced a graph that shows the bars on the graph in proportion to the activity in the market.
In my eyes, the savvy buyers are the ones taking advantage of high seller competition and concessions. As any stockbroker would tell you, buy low.
If you could go back in time and buy real estate after the Great Depression, or buy in the boondocks that is now Doral, or in Homestead right after hurricane Andrew – wouldn’t you?
Hindsight’s 20/20…
To all those who are asking:
Now is the time.
For those of you interested in the exact numbers, inventory increased 487% from April of 2005 to June of 2007.
If you would like a detailed analysis of your neighborhood, feel free to contact me at 786-663-4382.
Paula Barrera, Realtor
786-663-4382
The Congdon Connection – EWM Realtors