An interesting piece came out of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) last week looking at National trends for home sellers. For most of last year, homes for sale inventory was at lower than normal levels, tilting the balance of power in favor of sellers.
With the extreme weather around most of the country, and most certainly here in Louisville, homeowners planning to list their homes have been largely holding off, waiting for warmer temps.
That’s what NAR found, as well.
In the last four months of 2013, year-over-year inventory levels of homes for sale began to climb after 30 straight months of declines, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.
At the end of the day, there still need to be Louisville buyers actively seeking a new home or we’ll simply see an increase in Days on Market (DoM), but competition for Louisville home sellers hasn’t been this low in quite some time.
Louisville Home Sellers Still Hold the Cards
Louisville homes for sale inventory is currently very low.
There are just 3,553 homes currently listed for sale, down 16% from 4,229 this time last year. This makes it a great time to sell your Louisville home.
As always, the best advice I can share is to use a leading Louisville Realtor—one who knows how to promote your home in the best possible light, to as many potential buyers as possible.
That never changes.
Also, make sure to get a true Comparative Market Analysis, not a one-click, generic one. Top real estate agents put time into doing the full-blown, manually-adjusted report the same way home appraisers complete theirs. Lazy agents throw something together that might look good but lack value.
Ask a lot of questions and if the agent appears stumped, keep interviewing other agents. Louisville home sellers continue to be in a great position and should do well as we enter into the selling season.
As for buyers, mortgage rates are about three-quarters of a point higher than this time last year but still under 4.5% and more than a full point lower than rates were 10 years ago.
