As I go from town to town, neighborhood to neighborhood, the one complaint I hear from every real estate agent is that there are not enough houses for sale.
Of course, they’re talking about houses for sale that people want to buy.
There are houses on the market that are overpriced or need lots of work. These are the ones that sit much longer than the typical 90 or so days that statistics show as the median on-market period for houses in the eight-county Philadelphia region.
One factor tamping down the amount of sellable inventory can be attributed to the housing bubble.
Prudential Fox Roach agent Bob Raynor, who sells real estate in the Collegeville area, says there are still quite a few people who bought in the high times of 2006 and 2007 and now cannot begin to get anything near what they paid for their houses.
Many of these homeowners owe more on their properties than they are worth – about 23 percent of homeowners fall into this category nationwide – and they cannot sustain the kind of financial loss that selling now would bring.
Remember that although we hear a lot from those mesmerized by national numbers that prices have recovered umpteen percent, those figures may not translate well locally.
The bottom line, as always, is that if you price your house properly for the market, it will sell in short order, and perhaps even for list price or a bit more than that if there are multiple bids and your property looks good.
Sometimes, a house will sell in the blink of an eye.
I got one of those “Homes Sold in Your Neighborhood” cards from Long Foster agent Susan Azar, who is also a fine photographer.
On the front was a pretty center-hall stone Cape Cod-style house six blocks away in Haddonfield. It was nicely landscaped, so curb appeal, even on a heavily traveled street, was high.
The house was listed and sold in a single day.
“No interior photos,” Azar said, apologetically, “since the sale happened so quickly.”
Two years ago, the same house sold for $445,000. Sale price this time, according to Trulia.com, was $499,000. In 2005, it had sold for $415,000, the property records provided by Trulia showed.
You may not have the same experience as the seller of the Cape Cod, of course – a Haddonfield location is more important to buyers with school-age children than landscaping or other features might be.
Since the first of the year, real estate has, in many places, shifted from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market, but the message, says Renee Bartlett of Weichert Realtors in Collegeville, doesn’t seem to be getting to first-timers especially.
“They still think they can get some sort of a deal,” Bartlett says, “but they are losing out.”
So, buyers, be prepared to negotiate and brace yourself for disappointments. Don’t assume you can get what you want, when you want it.
And sellers, well, the things are just beginning to recover – you aren’t back in the driver’s seat just yet.
On the House: Town by Town
In this week’s Sunday Business section, Alan J. Heavens takes a look at real estate and life throughout the region.
This week’s focus: Mount Holly.
Contact Alan J. Heavens at 215-854-2472, aheavens@phillynews.com or @alheavens at Twitter.