Hi, I’m Doron Weisbarth with Weisbarth & Associates. Welcome to my August 2023 Market Update report.
How is a seller to know what to think during this murky period of real estate?
On the one hand, inventory is down, which means buyers have fewer choices. That means it should be easier to sell. But on the other hand, higher interest rates and other uncertainties seem to make buyers pickier and to resist getting into huge bidding wars.
The result, even with our lower inventory, is that new listings and sales remain sluggish. While median prices have meandered down in July 2023 relative to June 2023, it remains to be seen whether this is a trend, or just the normal, seasonal market fluctuation, affected by the higher interest rates, vacation time, people having fun in the sun, etc. Most likely, it’s a combination of all of the above.
The good news, if you want to sell, is that there is a pathway that leads to a great outcome, namely: selling faster and selling for more money.
Consider this graph:
What I’m showing here is the final sale price as a percentage of the original asking price. Meaning, if your listing price was a million dollars, and you got a million dollars, then you are 100%. If you got more than a million dollars then you’re more than 100%. And, of course, if you got less than a million dollars, then you are below 100%. Make sense?
From the summer of 2022 through March of 2023 – about nine months – sellers in Seattle and King County sold their homes for less than their asking prices, sometimes by as much as 5% less. In our area, with median home prices in the $800k range, 5% can be $40,000 – that’s a LOT of money, and that’s just for the median price!
But then, starting in March of this year, sellers starter receiving at least their asking price. You can see this trend in the graph, where the line was below 100% for months, but is now consistently holding steady right on or above the asking price. And this is true even for July 2023, even though overall median prices dropped relative to June 2023.
By the way, if you want to look at all this information and read my report at your pace and leisure, you’ll find all this information in my August newsletter, available online and for download, for free, at Weisbarth.com/Newsletter, that’s Weisbarth.com/Newsletter.
What does all this mean?
First, the market has stabilized. That’s good news and it is a big deal.
Second, despite it being a strong sellers’ market, which it still very much is, if you want to maximize the sale of your home, the fundamentals of marketing are still very important. Things such as:
Preparing and presenting your home in an appealing way
Pricing the home correctly
Understanding the buyers’ psychology
Knowing where and how to reach those buyers
Deal negotiations
and so on. All these things matter a lot.
In fact, none of these steps can be skipped, or you risk getting results that you may not like, such as taking longer to sell and selling your home for less than what it’s really worth.
The other thing, if you want to maximize your home sale, is that you just can’t take the buyer’s for granted anymore. Just a few short years ago buyers would pretty much jump on anything that the market presented to them, and throw money at it, sometime without enough thought. Well, no longer! Buyers today are picky. And who can blame them? If you’re going to pay so much money for a home, and have a large monthly mortgage payment because of the higher interest rates, you’d be picky too! Fair? I think so.
So, if you or anyone you know is looking to buy a home or sell their home, please refer them to the Weisbarth & Associates team by phone, email or fill out a form on our website. Our team will make sure that you are educated and prepared correctly. And when you refer someone, tell them that just because we meet and talk doesn’t mean that they are obligated to work with us – there’s absolutely NO obligation! To be honest, all of our clients work with us not out of any sense of obligation, but because they think that we’re the best suited to represent them on their home purchase or home sale, truly!
The best way to reach me is by phone at 206-779-9808, that’s 206-779-9808.
And remember that your business and referrals help the kids at Childhaven, so you get a good deed out of it too!
Please remember to like, subscribe and follow for more great insights, charts and tips on my monthly vlog, and read our monthly newsletter at Weisbarth.com/Newsletter.
I’m Doron Weisbarth with Weisbarth & Associates. Have a great rest of your summer and I’ll see you next month!