home buyers Miranda Ferreira June 1, 2024
What Buyers in Fernandina Beach, Amelia Island & Yulee Should Know
“It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Yogi Berra
If anything, this has been an interesting year in residential real estate. To put it lightly: it did not go as originally planned. The 6 projected rate cutes seem like a distant memory, as are sub-6% rates. The spike in home listings and sales has not materialzed to the levels projected at the beginning of the year. But hear me out: this doesn't have to mean "doom and gloom"! It means we need to be more understanding of the canvas on which we are working.
The first point to make is there are differences in local trends compared to what is happening nationally. Depending on the source, you will hear that it has been a vibrant market or that the market is absymal. The truth lies in the in-between: home resales are down across all four sections of the country but new construction is still doing fairly well. The same can be seen with the days on market. When looking at pending home sales year over year, 2 regions are down (Northeast & South) while 2 are in the positive range (West & Midwest). All regions report increased year over year home sale's price (3.4% in the South region, which was the lowest of the 4). I could go further but I am sure some eyes are starting to glaze over.
Locally, we are seeing some of the same and less of the mainstream. In the latest release of county data from the Amelia Island Nassau County Association of Realtors, the number of closed sales, closed prices and number of active/available listings were up year over year in the month of April. Categories such as time to contract/sale, new pending sales, new listings and pending inventory were down for the month. For the year, closed sales had a slow trend upward prior to plateau. Active inventory and supply are continuing an upward climb. A lot of the statistics are similar to those seen in years 2017-2019.
The pink elephant in the room is affordability. This will continue to be influenced by mortgage rates, labor market activity and inflation data. Buyers can use the softening demand to negotiate lower home sale prices and/or greater concessions (such as rate buy downs and repairs credits). Seller's use this data to help appropriately price their homes to encourage greater buyer interest. The important message is to get with a loan adviser that is up to date with the latest programs to assist with getting the best deal, such as the 0% down FHA or Hometown Heroes programs to assist with cash to close issues. For both buyers and sellers, keep an open mind about the type of loan program. Conventional is not always the best, but a storng pre-approval from a trusted loan advisor can be a game changer to a concerned seller.
Below are some tips to help buyers and seller's navigate the current market to be successful:
For Buyers:
For Sellers:
Don't rely on forecasts to make the decisions, as they are often wrong in hindsight. The real estate market does not need to be daunting, scary or "over-whelming". The best way to avoid these feelings is to understand what is going on in your specific area and sub-areas. Having the right "coaches" (ie lenders, real estate agents, etc) will help you find the winning sale to make your next move.
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