Hunterdon Market Pulse!

July 10th, 2008 by Don Sherblom

What kind of buyer’s market has multiple offers? It’s just not fair. Most homes just sit there and wait while the market softens. Others not only go under contract, but have multiple potential buyers.

If you’re thinking those lucky few are underpriced, you’re thinking what the buyers are thinking. You’re right that fear of losing a deal gets buyers to jump in. You can shout ‘come on, the waters warm’ but it takes incentives for them to dive in.

But once they’re wet, committed to a house, their attitude changes. Getting them wet. That’s the challenge in today’s market. I wonder if this means buyers are starting to recognize value? Probably some. Anyway that’s just the way it is right now, with buyers holding out for a deal even though they’re eager to buy.

The past seven year’s inventory index is graphed above. The past two years is graphed below. As you can see, this month’s index of available homes is about where it was in June last year.

The index, (number of available homes divided by number placed under contract last month) shows how many months it would take to sell every home on the market at the current pace of home sales.

The index is many months higher than it was in the hot sellers market of years gome by, as seen above, but fewer than we saw in Hunterdon County even last fall.

Autumn is usually the second best time to market your home (the two worst times are in the snows of winter and sands of summer). The second graph shows how still the market was last fall. Does it also portend a better September-November selling period than last year? Short of another jump in inventory index, maybe yes.