Come Spring

If you Wait For Spring Will You Leave $ on the Table?

Many homeowners that are thinking of selling wait until spring to list their homes.  Historically spring is a super busy time for the Central Oregon Real Estate Market. However this year, once the shock of COVID-19 settled in people started moving around.  Working from home became the norm, distance learning because a reality. People have reevaluated their living conditions, communities and made the choice to move on.

La Pine has seen incredible appreciation in home values.  Home values are holding steady due to the lack of inventory and low interest rates.  As I write this there are only 16 residential properties for sale in the 97739 zip code. With the holidays over buyers are constantly looking for a home to call their own.

Listing your home now with such low inventory will bring you a higher sales price and generally speaking a cleaner offer. If you wait until spring, will you be competing with a lot of other listings?  Interest rates could be higher too, reducing the buying power of the buyer.  Lenders approve buyers based on the payment their income can withstand. With lower rates we see higher qualifying numbers, with higher rates we see lower qualified prices.

If you wait until spring you could seriously be leaving money on the table.  The first quarter of 2020 (Jan 1 to March 31) we had 69 homes close escrow.  This year that number stands to be lower, not because the market is slow but because there are not enough homes on the market. If history repeats itself and we have a flood of new listings hit the market at once competition will be fierce, prices will be negotiated and some homes will take longer to sell. I recently published this YouTube video explaining in more detail how tight the market is and how selling in the winter may be beneficial to you the seller.