I read about a recent home sales study done over 4 years. It looked at over 7 million home sales and the season of year the home listed. The study revealed: a listing’s season might decide whether the home will sell for more than the asking price and how fast the sale will close.
It’s no surprise that listing a home for sale during the spring saw the largest return, as spring is traditionally the busiest month for real estate. What was surprising, though, is that listing a home during the winter came in second!
The study stated, “Among spring listings, 18.7 percent of homes fetched above asking, with winter listings not far behind at 17.5 percent. While 48.0 percent of homes listed in spring sold within 30 days, 46.2 percent of homes in winter did the same.”
The study went on to say, “Buyers (in the winter) often need to move, so they’re much less likely to make a lowball offer and they’ll often want to close quickly – two things that can make the sale much smoother.”
Note: The study used the astronomical seasons to determine which season the listing date fell into (Winter: Dec. 21 – Mar. 20; Spring: March. 21 – June 20; Summer: June 21 – Sept 21; Autumn: Sept 21 – Dec. 20)
Bottom Line: If you are debating listing your Lake Gaston home for sale within the next 6 months, keep in mind that the spring is when most other homeowners will decide to list their homes as well. There is more competition in the spring. If you’ve been thinking of selling your Lake Gaston property, listing it this winter will ensure that you have the best exposure to the serious buyers who are out looking now! We have been very active with potential buyers this fall despite low inventory levels in some price ranges. Lake Gaston Realtors® do not stop working at the end of the summer, we help buyers and sellers all year long!
Here we are, almost to the end of 2016, and you can see just how busy we’ve been. Through November we have closed on 207 waterfront homes averaging $401,928 each, totaling $83,199,154 compared to sales of $75,253,200 in the same period in 2015. A modest increase of 10.56% in dollar volume and 15.0% increase in unit sales of waterfront homes.
Offshore home sales remain seemingly flat with 105 closed through November averaging $106,404 each, totaling $11,172,467. This category is down 2.4% in dollar volume over the same period in 2015 and it remains unchanged in unit sales.
Waterfront homes represent 81.5% of our total dollar sales and Offshore homes represents 10.9% of our total sales in the four quads of Lake Gaston.
Lot sales remain slow at the lake, 37 waterfront lots have closed at an average sales price of $149,814. We have also closed on 30 Offshore lots averaging $16,746 each.
Our closed transactions in the Lake Gaston market through November total $102,023,735. That’s an increase of 9.62% over 2015 sales in the same period which totaled $93,066,613.
All sales statistics are from the Roanoke Valley Lake Gaston Board of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and do not reflect private sales.
“Consumer confidence improved in November after a moderate decline in October, and is once again at prerecession levels,” said Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board. “A more favorable assessment of current conditions coupled with a more optimistic short-term outlook helped boost confidence. And while most consumers were surveyed before the presidential election, it appears from the small sample of post-election responses that consumers’ optimism was not impacted by the outcome. With the holiday season upon us, a more confident consumer should be welcome news for retailers.”
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index®, which had declined in October, increased significantly in November. The Index now stands at 107.1, up from 100.8 in October.
The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) announced Nationally Pending Home Sales in October were up 0.1% and Existing Home Sales were up a strong 2.0%. NAR contributes the increase to improving consumer confidence levels as well as job and wage growth. NAR also estimates sales have been lagging due to low housing inventories.
Per REALTOR®.com, the 2017 national real estate market is predicted to slow compared to the last two years, across most economic indicators. Home prices are anticipated to increase slightly and existing home sales are forecasted to increase 1.9 percent to 5.46 million homes. Interest rates are expected to reach 4.5 percent due to higher expectations for inflationary pressure in the year ahead. Next year, the prediction is the housing market will be dominated by two demographic groups, millennials and baby boomers. Baby boomers are expected to make up 30 percent of buyers in 2017 and given they’re less dependent on financing, they are anticipated to be more successful when it comes to closing. Baby boomers tend to have an appetite for second-homes.
I don’t have a crystal ball but I am very optimistic about the Lake Gaston Real Estate Market continuing to be strong as we finish 2016 and head into the New Year.
I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a wonderful New Year!
Barney Watson is Managing Partner with RE/MAX On The Lake and 2016/2017 MLS President of the Roanoke Valley Lake Gaston Board of REALTORS®. His cell: 252-532-3274 and web: Lake Gaston Real Estate RE/MAX Broker Barney Watson
