How's the Market??

My favorite question. I get it at least once a day, so I always have to have an answer ready. In a world of 30 second soundbites and 200 word yahoo.com stories and 240 character twitter posts (shameless plug, check me out on twitter @andrewsoss), everyone wants the quick and simple answer.

The quick and simple answer is that there isn't an easy answer to this question. I know it's not what people want to hear but it's true. Nevertheless, I am forced to dial back my own ego and boil down the market to 30 seconds, 200 words or 240 characters.

So here it is.

Client: How's the market?
Me: It really depends.

If I had to sum up the market in one word, it would be "Stratified". It's a very different market in the low end, middle end, and the high end.

The low end is insanely hot. Since May, I can't remember the last single family property under $500,000 that didn't have multiple offers and sell in less than 10 days. Many properties are being scooped up by all cash investors and first time homebuyers.

Many of the properties that cannot qualify for financing due to property condition are being scooped up by the cash investors. The ones that can qualify for financing are getting bid way up by buyers wishing to take advantage of the first time homebuyer credit.

The middle and high end of the market, in my opinion, still has some ways to fall. I think that it needs to come down by at least another 10% to be in line with rents and to get investors to stabilize the prices.

That being said, rates are still near historic lows and contrary to what people would tell you, we can still get financing pretty easily for qualified buyers.