How to Recognize a Buyers Market

Provided By Realty Times

Are you on the search for a new home? Are you a first-time home buyer ready to enter the market? Then a buyers market is right where you want to be!

Recent years have turned many real estate markets on their heads. One-time hotbeds for rapid appreciation and booming sales have turned into areas rampant with dropping prices and foreclosures. Making matters even more complicated, is the realization that every market is different. Even neighborhoods within cities have varying markets.

How can you tell if you are living in an area experiencing a buyers market?

Key Indicators:

•More than six month's worth of inventory on the market

•Median sales price is down

•Fewer buyers on the market

•Relative large supply of homes and relative low prices

As a buyer, how can you maneuver yourself to take full advantage of a market which is stacked in your favor?

All of the market indicators translate into more choice for buyers. Prices become more negotiable. You have more homes to choose from.

One of your first steps is to hire a real estate agent. An agent can supply you with market statistics, including days on market, pricing, and neighborhood comparables. They can also direct you to home listings on the MLS.

With such economic uncertainty today, buyers are scared to venture into the market. They fear prices may drop after they buy, leaving them upside down in a home. They fear the market will not pick up for years, leaving them stuck in a home. That fear works in your favor, should you choose to buy. Interest rates are at historic lows. And buyer fear actually translates into more homes for you to choose from. It means sellers may be more willing to drop their price to make a sale.

In negotiating, foreclosures wreak havoc on a neighborhood. Foreclosures can lower values on an entire street. If a home has been sitting on the market for months, the likelihood that the seller will make concessions increases.

And even when a price won't budge, you can always discuss who will pay closing costs.

Deciding when to buy can be a big decision, but buying during a buyers market can give you many advantages over other markets.
Looking for an experienced agent? Call us at 972-772-7000 or email us at rockwall@kw.com.