The biggest real estate news story this week:
The National Association of Realtors said Monday that sales of existing homes fell 7.1 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.08 million.
There are several reasons why there were fewer home sales in February.
One reason home sales are down is because the average number of homes on the market has gone down. Homes are selling briskly and I have clients who want to buy homes but they do not have enough homes to choose from and when we do find a home that they like they have to compete with several other buyers for the home.
There are people who would like to sell but they are holding off because they can not find a home to buy.
Some homeowners are hanging on until they have more equity. The recent housing crash wiped out a decade of equity. Each spring I meet with potential sellers who decide to wait another year until they have more equity.
There is a large number of baby boomers who are retired or close to retirement who are staying put. As a group older Americans just don’t move around much.
Some more new construction would help. It would be nice to see some houses on those lots that were made vacant by tearing down houses during the recession.
Maybe if tiny houses were allowed in the city we would have more housing.
