Slow But Still Steady

Well, the real estate market has begun to settle into its normal pre-holiday slump. Even in the recent years when the Phoenix market has been red hot, the buying and selling has dropped off between Thanksgiving and New Years. It just makes sense; people aren’t generally interested in packing up their entire house and family and moving while the tree and holiday lights are up.

However, because we currently have 47,114 properties on the market in the Phoenix metro area, there are plenty of people becoming downright desperate to sell. That fact, in combination with low interest rates (6.5% with no points and set to dip a bit in the next couple of months) makes it really a fabulous buyers market. First time buyers with no cash have can fairly easily get sellers to contribute to closing costs. Investors can find screaming deals if they look hard enough.

Anyway, my listings are pretty quiet lately. Showings are down, but haven’t completely halted. I hear that million-dollar listings are teaming with traffic still, interestingly enough. I’ve counseled my clients that things will be slow for the next few months, but that we’ve got to wait it out and we may still get lucky. We’re priced right and they look great, we just need to hold out for that family who has to transfer to Phoenix for a new job or something similar.

In the meantime, I’m taking a class in the next couple of weeks on Pre-Foreclosure properties. Unfortunately for many, the non-traditional mortgages people have been utilizing to purchase homes possibly out of their price range have begun to catch up with them. The foreclosure market is heating up, and investors are going to need agents who know how to negotiate the territory. I’m also interested in getting into a bit of investing myself.

So there you go: real estate content. I knew I could pound some out.

Gray says, “Buy a house or I will suck your blood!”

(Had to throw that one in for the grandparents.)