The oft-quoted New Jersey appraiser, Jeffrey Otteau’s advice for both home buyers and sellers is that your best time to make a move is the next two months.   For buyers, March is optimum, for sellers March and April will be the most opportune times to sell anytime this year.  Since hindsight is 20/20 it helps to know this prediction is based on evidence from October 2009.  This was the last month a buyer could put a house under contract and qualify for $8,000 in tax credits. A quick look at Hunterdon home sales shows a bump up by about a 25% in October, largely attributable to the tax incentive. 

The Inventory Index (months’ supply of  homes at last month’s sales pace) showed a temporary drop in the number of Hunterdon County homes for sale that same month.  

The tax credit was subsequently extended and expanded to include $6,500 for current home owners.  To qualify now, buyers need to be under contract by April 30th (they have another two months to have a title closing).  

Another factor, Mortgage interest rates, indicates March is the better month for buyers to make their move.  Rates are currently low, in part to the FED program of Buying mortgage backed securities until the end of this month. 

In April, rates will probably go higher, a move that initially prompts buyers to jump in.  The approaching tax credit deadline will further increase buyer activity.  All this will happen not in a season which typically sees declining sales, but at the most active time of year.   So the house that’s been sitting through a snowy February without showings will get showings and maybe even an offer.  Bargaining power will start to evaporate as the snow recedes, especially as we approach mid-April.  

For home sellers, pricing it realistically and getting it on the market before the crest in buying activity will be important, especially since no body knows where the real estate market will be after the Spring.  In short, now may be the best time this year – right now for buyers (before mortgage rates go up and the competition increases) and for home sellers, sometime these two months, as the normal seasonal trend is lifted further by low rates and tax credits, will be optimum.

Please call (908) 797-9900 for an analysis of your home’s current market value Don Sherblom at 908 797-9900 or email me here