One of the topics we’ve found our clients are most curious about is real estate investing. So, we’ve decided to put on our first educational series called Real Estate Investing 101.
Our first Real Estate Investing 101 course will be taking place on Wednesday, February 22nd from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at our Keller Williams office located in University Place.
Join us for our educational series, Real Estate Investing 101!
We will be providing dinner for you from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. and will get into the content from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m, which we refer as the Hauer Power Hour!
If you or anyone you know would be interested in this event, you can RSVP here. I hope you can join us for our event!
If you have any other real estate questions, that’s what we’re here for, so don’t hesitate to reach out with a quick phone call or email. We look forward to connecting with you soon!
What’s happening in the Pierce County real estate market? To give you a comprehensive look, I’ll break it down by price range.
First, let’s jump into the zero to $300,000 bracket. Here, the average days on market is 13 days, meaning it’s taking an average of 13 days for an offer to be exchanged between buyer and seller. The list-to-sales price ratio is 99.8%, meaning if we ask $300,000 for the house, it would sell at 99.8% of that asking price. The supply of inventory is sitting at just one month, which qualifies this price range as a seller’s market.
To give you some context, a seller’s market represents anywhere from zero to five months’ worth of inventory. If we have six months’ worth of inventory, it’s considered more of a balanced market. If there is a supply of seven months or more, it’s considered a buyer’s market.
Data can vary based on your specific location.
Moving up to the $300,000 to $500,000 price bracket, the average days on market increased to 17 days. The list-to-sales price ratio dropped slightly to 99.6%. The level of inventory has increased to 1.4 months. Just as in the previous price range, this bracket is very much a seller’s market.
If we look at the $500,000 to $700,000 price bracket, the average days on market increased significantly to 43 days. The list-to-sales price ratio dropped again to 99.2%. The level of inventory increased again to 2.9 months. As you can see, the supply has gone up, but we’re still in a seller’s market.
In the $750,000 and above price bracket, or the high-end luxury market, the average days on market increased further to 61 days. The list-to-sales price ratio dropped again to 97.8%. The level of inventory jumped up to 6.5 months. As evidenced by the numbers, this range is far more balanced than the lower price ranges.
Obviously, this data can change based on your specific location within Pierce County, so if you’re curious what the market looks like around your particular area, feel free to reach out to us. We’re here to serve, and we look forward to helping you in any way we can!
Should you try selling your home during the winter months?
The answer can depend on where you are specifically located, but there are five general advantages to selling in winter rather than waiting until the change in season:
There is less competition from other sellers in winter. If everybody else has the same idea and wants to wait until spring or summer, why would you want to get stuck with that much more competition? As the flowers bloom, so do the other ‘For Sale’ signs around town.
You won’t have to deal with as much foot traffic coming through your house for showings. There won’t be as many people looking at your house in person, but the ratio of buyers who are actually serious about buying is far higher. This means you won’t be inconvenienced as much as you would during the spring or summer months.
Interest rates are still very low. As of right now, they’re hovering around 3.5%, which is insanely low. However, they won’t stay that way forever. In fact, they may not stay that way for much longer at all. As they begin to rise, the buyer pool begins to shrink.
Buyers are far more serious this time of year. Remember—this is the time of year when employees are being transferred by their companies to new areas, and these people need a house soon.
Homes show far better during the holidays. Who doesn’t like a good Christmas lights arrangement or a crackling fire?
Interest rates are low right now, and competition is soft.
If you have any more questions about this or any other real estate-related topic, please feel free to reach out to me by phone or email. I look forward to connecting with you soon!
I’ve been getting asked by a lot of people lately if we are currently in a real estate bubble that is about to pop. I’d like to address that topic today and give you some insight on where we are today versus where we were in 2007 when the last bubble burst.
The main reason for the last bubble was that anyone with a pulse could qualify for a mortgage. Lending guidelines are much stricter now, and there are a lot more rules and regulations that make it more difficult to get a mortgage.
Another thing to like right now is our low interest rates. They are so low that some people are concerned that when they inevitably go up, it will severely affect affordability for buyers. However, that hasn’t happened historically.
We have a strong market right now.
In May 1983, interest rates rose from 12.63% to 14.67% in one year. Even though that’s a significant increase, it caused home values to increase as well. We saw similar situations in 1987, 1994, and 2000. Each time, home values increased along with rates and it didn’t cause a bubble. Supply and demand are going to be a big part of this. Ultimately, we are in a strong seller’s market right now with only 1.8 months of inventory.
We definitely have a strong market right now. Nobody has a crystal ball, but I can say for certain we are in a much better situation than we were in 2007. We will start to see a correction soon, but I highly doubt we will see a bubble.
If you have any questions for us, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.
Now that the 3rd quarter is done, we're back with our quarterly Pierce County real estate market update. Things are looking strong in our local market this year.
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With the 3rd quarter in the books, I wanted to give you our quarterly Pierce County market update. We've seen some great things happening the local market.
Typically, the main factors we look at are how many homes sold in comparison to the 3rd quarter of 2015, the average and median asking price versus the average and median sold price, and finally, the days on market.
This year in the 3rd quarter, we saw sales go up to 4,242 compared to 3,852 last year, good for a 10% increase, which is great to see. We also saw the median list price go up this year. In the 3rd quarter of 2015, median list price was $250,000, and when you fast forward to this year, it was $279,950, which is an 11% increase.
We saw list price and sales price both increase by 10% or more.
The number I'm usually most interested in is sold price. We can ask whatever we want for a house, but the price that somebody is willing to pay for it is what really counts. The median final sale price in Pierce County last year was $253,475, which was on average 1.3% over asking price. Looking at this year, the median sale price was $282,250 and 0.8% over asking price on average.
Looking back at last year, the average days on market was 21 in the 3rd quarter, and it has actually shrunk down to 13 days in the same time frame this year.
Here at the Hauer Real Estate Group, our listings sold for an average of 3% over asking price, which is definitely outperforming the market as a whole. Our listings also have an average of nine days on market compared to 13 days for the area as a whole.
As always, we're here to be a resource for you, so give us a call with any questions you have. We'd love to hear from you!
