By: Amanda Ferrari
Home purchase demand is robust right now. With low supply and high demand, home prices are at an all-time high. If selling your home is something you are considering, right now may be your best opportunity.
The statement “Supply chain disruptions” became part of our everyday language by 2022. Almost every industry is currently struggling with supply chain disruptions. This also applies to the current U.S. housing market, where buyer demand far exceeds housing supply.
Inventory Is at an All-Time Low
Because purchaser demand is so high, the market is running out of available homes for sale. Nationally we are seeing the current months’ supply of inventory of homes for sale has fallen to 1.6 months. In Bend, we are sitting at about 2 WEEKS of inventory. This means that if no new listings hit the market, all the current listings would be sold in just two weeks!
Earlier this month, realtor.com released their inventory for January. It helps confirm this point. Here’s a graph comparing inventory levels for January over the last six years:
As the graph shows, new listings coming on the market have decreased over the last four years (shown in blue in the graph). The graph also reveals that carry-over inventory has plummeted in recent years. This is because listings are now sold so quickly they don’t stay on the market long enough to carry over month-to-month (shown in green in the graph). In other words, homes are not staying on the market for months as they had before the pandemic.
Here in Bend, homes are averaging only nine days on the market. Day number one is when the house goes onto the market, and day nine would be when the seller accepts an offer, and the home goes pending.
What Does This Mean for Sellers?
Anyone thinking of putting their home on the market shouldn’t wait. A seller will always negotiate the best deal when demand is high, and supply is limited. That’s precisely the situation in the real estate market today.
Later this year, inventory (and by extension, your competition) will increase as many homeowners wait to put their homes on the market in the spring and early summer.
We have a lot of new construction in Bend if you haven’t noticed! As these newly built homes are completed, they will also become competition for your house. This gives you a tremendous opportunity right now. If you want to sell in 2022 and are ready to start the process, reach out to explore this opportunity further.