A change in the market? It may seem like the market is changing after two years of heavy competition but don’t let that fool you into thinking home prices are dropping in the Quinte area, Trent Hills, and Prince Edward County.
Spring market is here and with it comes more inventory. A welcome necessity to alleviate the weight of demand on the Quinte real estate market. In January and February, record low inventory yielded more offers per property than we’ve previously seen and an exceptionally high differential between the listing and sales prices. This trend continued until March break.
The beginning of spring market sees an increase in new listings every year.
In a seller’s market, this allows buyers more options, therefore dispersing the volume of interest, showings, and offers across more properties. With simple numbers, in January and February, if there are five homes for sale, there are one hundred buyers hoping to purchase. When more inventory becomes available, it does not take away from the number of buyers but instead offers more opportunities for those buyers to get into a home, spreading out the interest across forty properties. Again, these numbers are not a reflection of the actual market data, just to provide a simple explanation.
When there are fewer options, the stakes are higher, therefore, yielding higher differentials between the listing and sales prices and the fastest, most drastic increases to the market averages.
More options reduce the intensity of the competition, slightly slowing (very slightly) the rate at which housing prices increase giving buyers a better chance at securing a home in the crazy real estate market.
If you’re buying, there’s a narrow window when more homes are listed for sale in the spring where you’re likely to find the best opportunity to buy a home. It does not mean you’re getting a deal, but it may allow you to purchase with less competition and secure a home with a conditional offer.
The catch is, that narrow window closes fast, so you need to be ready to jump. We are still in this window where March break has ended, spring travel is ongoing, school is still in session, and homes are starting to creep onto the market for the spring season. People are tired and focusing elsewhere, for now. However, that moderate lull in market activity acts as a beacon of hope to home buyers experiencing fatigue in the real estate market.
Now, there are more opportunities, houses sitting on the market for longer, and maybe, just maybe, a better chance of buying a home. That’s when the window begins to close, as new listings and a slight pattern change inspire more buyers to enter or reenter the market, again fueling more competition, higher stakes, and higher prices.
If you’re selling in the early stages of spring market, it is more important than ever to focus on the presentation of your home. It is crucial that your home stands out among the rest of the listings in order to attract the most attention. In the Quinte market, we saw several homes sitting on the market past their offer day, not achieving the sales price or conditions they aimed for.
Presentation makes all the difference.
Ensure your home is properly prepared and presented on the market to get the most attention and yield the best results for your selling efforts. Professional photography, staging, listing distribution, and a realtor who knows what they’re doing can make all the difference. In March 2022, the average sales price for homes that used a professional photographer in the Quinte area was 8.2% higher than those listed without professional photography to market their property (compiled through recent sales data on QDAR).
Entering the market as a buyer or a seller? Talk with our team about how to get the best results on either side of the fence.