What Could Cause Our Imbalanced Housing Market To Balance Out?


What Could Cause Our Imbalanced Housing Market To Balance Out?
By Scott Rogers • February 12, 2021
Several of my clients have recently commented on how our local real estate market seems out of balance - with so many more active buyers in the market than there are sellers willing to sell their homes. This dynamic often leads to many buyers making offers on well priced, well prepared, well marketed listings to hit the market in and around Harrisonburg. Sometimes it even leads to buyers offering above (or waaaay above) the list price for homes that they don't want to let slip away. So -- if the market is imbalanced, with sellers having the upper hand, what could help our local market come back into more of a balance? In some ways, it's hard to imagine how we work ourselves out of this imbalance, but here are a few real, imagined or fantastical thoughts... If buyers all took a stand and refused to keep paying more and more for houses and went on strike - this could cause the market - oh, never mind. This one is not very realistic. There are so many buyers in the market that I don't think they're all just going to decide to stop buying. If mortgage interest rates significantly increased, this could affect how many buyers were willing and able to buy, which could cool down the market. If a large new home community launches, that could quickly increase the supply of housing, helping to balance the market. There are several possibly in the works, but it's difficult at this time to gauge how quickly those will come to pass, what will be built, at what price point, etc. If each of the local retirement communities magically create 300 new spaces for the oldest generation to move into, this would likely free up quite a bit of resale inventory, which would help create some market balance. If major local employers departed or downsized, that could cause sellers to sell who wouldn't have otherwise, and could cause buyers to not buy who would have otherwise. Thankfully, however, we seem to be seeing stable and increased local employment so this change doesn't seem likely. In the end, there don't seem to be many certain paths forward that would allow for our local housing market to balance out in any significant way. As such, it seems relatively likely that our local housing market will remain strong and at an imbalance that heavily favors sellers. If you're seeing something I'm not - and have predictions for how our local market might balance itself out in the coming year - let me know! Receive Updates by Email Recent Articles: There Are Plenty Of Types Of Houses That Exist That Just Are Not Available To Purchase Home Sales By Price Range In The City Of Harrisonburg Are You Compromising On Aspects Of Your Next Home That You Can Or Cannot Change Later? How Much Slower Are The Winter Months In Our Local Housing Market? Rockingham County and New Home Sales Drive Surge in Area Housing Market Find The Balance Between Optimistic And Realistic Home Pricing Room Size Is Difficult To Understand Solely From Real Estate Photos How Much Would You Value Not Having To Prepare Your Home For Showings? One Out Of Four Homes Is Taking Longer Than A Month To Sell Consider The Cost Of Your Planned Renovations When Planning Your Offer
Have any questions? Contact Scott Rogers at 540-578-0102 or scott@funkhousergroup.com
Based on information from the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of REALTORS® or its MLS, for the period Jan 1, 2000 through Nov 21, 2024 (unless otherwise noted).
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