We’ve written about feisty buyers, shown data on multiple offers and told the story of Mid-Peninsula Madness. That opened up the floodgates, and now we’re hearing from our agents across the country: Buyers are frustrated with the lack of homes on the market, and the few sellers out there are using scarcity to their advantage.
Sellers Have Swagger
Home sellers are in the driver’s seat, and they know it.
Desperate Times Mean Desperate Measures for Buyers
There are some old tactics that are getting dusted off and some new ones that agents are adding.
The Numbers
The data highlight the scope and scale of what our agents are seeing every day. The number of homes for sale has dropped by double digits in most counties, cities and neighborhoods, and they’re still declining. Just take a look at the Bay Area in January 2012. The column on the right says it all.
Nationally, in the markets where Redfin has offices, it was more of the same. Each had varying degrees of year-over-year declines in the number of homes for sale in January:
Where Have All The Sellers Gone?
In a recent survey of home buyers, 56% said now is a good time to buy, whereas only 13% said now is a good time to sell. Why the difference? The buyers said they think stagnant prices are keeping people from listing their homes. “Unrealistic home sellers who expect 2007 prices,” one buyer called them. Regardless, home owners know what they paid, they know what they can get in the current market and decide instead to make their mortgage payments and bide their time while they wait for prices to recover. The good news for those folks is that we think the bleeding will stop this year and we’ll start down the slow path to recovery.
Context for the Shortage
Not all inventory crises are created equal, and like everything else in real estate, location is the key to how hard the inventory crisis is being felt. The number of listings in any given market is just a number, without context. A thousand homes on the market in Multnomah County, Ore. goes a lot further than 1,000 homes on the market in Los Angeles County.
The map and data below show the areas with the lowest inventory per household, so you can see which areas feel the shortage the most. For example, in San Francisco, there’s only one home on the market for every 470 households. While that can partially be explained by its strength as a rental market, the level of demand also puts it at the center of the supply shortage. California in general is particularly hard hit, with the Washington DC area not far behind.
Float over any county on the map or its colored bar on the table for more details about inventory in that city.
Are you one of the frustrated buyers, sitting on the sidelines with stellar credit, not seeing the right house come on the market? Share your stories in the comments!
