Real Estate Blog

• All indications are showing that we have more or less hit the bottom - investors are feeling it and are out buying homes!
  
• For the past three months, more than 60% of all closed transactions have been cash transactions,
  
• When properties are priced correctly, the average number of days a property will stay 'active' is less than 45 days,
  
• Interest rates continue to hover around 5% - still the lowest in many, many years,
  
• Home prices have stabilized.  We may see some minor dips and increase in prices, but for the most part we seem to have stabilized
  
• Home affordability is at record levels - somewhere around 14%, compared to around 37% in 1980
  
• The average age of a home buyer today is between 30-45, making up over 50% of all buyers - these are the echo buyers, children of the baby boomers and 80 million strong,
  
• 82% of people purchasing today are buying single-family homes, 9% buying condos, 7% buying townhouses, and 1% buying duplexes,
  
• Buyers today are very well educated.  They look at many properties, determine value by comparison shopping, they watch TV and most all work with a real estate agent.
  
• Moving over to the seller's side - sellers need to put their trust in two time-tested principles of real estate: condition and price.  These are the only two factors sellers have control over, and they are the two that buyers care about the most.
  
• 94% of homes in better condition were offered a higher percent of the list price than 88% of homes in poor condition were offered a lower percent of the list price,
  
• Staging a home or having a professional stager come and evaluate a home is critical.  Interestingly enough staging a home in California is common and here in Florida its viewed as an expense.  Yet - staging a home will typically bring 1.7% more on the sale of the home.