| >> News - May 2012 |
What??? Bidding wars, escalation clauses, pre-inspections.
I attended a brokers open a couple weeks ago and a purchaser
was having a pre-inspection because the seller was reviewing offers the
following day.
I drove by a house on NE 68th and 32nd NE that just came on the market and the next day I went to look inside and found that it was already sold by the time I got there.
Across the street, a couple was moving things into one of those portable curbside storage units, so I stopped and asked if they are moving. They said yes and their house was going on the market the next weekend. The next Monday, when I dropped the boys off at school, I saw it had already sold. What is going on?
By listening to the national news or economists, you would think it was a total buyer’s market. Well, that may be true in some hard hit areas but it certainly is not the case in established Seattle neighborhoods. Since the housing market bubble burst, the state started tolling 520 turning I5 into a parking lot earlier in the day, the school district stopped busing so now when you buy a house you know what school your kids will go to school, and interest rates are at an all time low. These are real factors home buyers are considering. They are shopping neighborhoods by school districts thinking about alternative routes to work, and basically, getting on with their lives. I’m not saying we are in that frenzied market where home buyers are expected to overpay and appraisers always come in above value, but I think things are getting back to normal. A good house, in nice shape, in a good neighborhood, priced right, will sell quickly. And in some cases, very quickly.
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