Less Homes on Market Than Last Year?

I saw some interesting stats today. The Greater Nashville Association of Realtors (GNAR), reports that 15,053 residential properties for sale at the end of September 2008, compared to 15,438 at the same time last year. So there are actually less homes for sale this year. (This figure doesn't include condos or multi-family.)

This really surprised me because homes are taking longer to sell. GNAR also reports that around 250 less homes sold in September 2008 compared to a year ago.

The major increases in inventory have been in the farms/land/lots category where there are 38% more to choose from this year. Generally, more inventory (or supply) means that prices fall due to overstock.

So what does this mean? Why are things taking longer to sell, but yet the inventory isn’t piling up? Here’s my opinion: people that don’t have to sell, aren’t. Instead of leaving their homes on the market or dropping the prices to get them sold, people are just waiting. It seems that the majority of homes for sale out there today are owned by sellers that have to sell them- banks, developers, builders and people relocating or facing foreclosure.

The difficulty in this ‘buyers’ market is that many buyers are waiting too! They are watching the news and scared to make any moves that might put them at risk. I tend to believe that there is quite a bit of pent-up demand out there- people that would really prefer to buy or sell but are waiting for one reason or another.

The housing market tends to move slowly compared to the yo-yo stock market. It’s often hard to know what’s going on until it’s behind us. Once confidence is restored and people feel like there is some solid ground to stand on, I think they’ll jump off the fence they are waiting on.

Thinking about jumping? Give me a call! :)
-Peter

www.NashvilleCityHomes.com