Ryan Reynolds & The Reynolds Team
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If there’s ever been a real estate market that has changed from luke warm to being on fire, it is this one. Many neighborhoods in the greater Columbus area – specifically, Dublin, Hilliard, Worthington, Powell, Lewis Center and Westerville, are a serious Seller’s market. Homes that are in good condition that are listed are selling within just a few days. The number of new homes listed is being out paced by the number that are going into contract and that is furthering the shortage of available supply in the market and is starting to push pricing up.

The good news for buyers is that the mortgage interest rates are still historically low and the pricing of homes hasn’t significantly increased above it bottom. I can’t say this enough, but if you are thinking of buying for the first time or trading up, this is the best time ever (Quite literally) to do so. Waiting will surely mean you’ll have lost the opportunity of a lifetime, maybe several lifetimes. The only hard part is finding a home that you love and getting it into contract before everyone else does.

Almost everyone has been hoping for this shift in the market to happen, and the shift is certainly happening now. Don’t miss out!

Great question! The answer depends on precisely where you are talking about. Not just Columbus vs. Las Vegas, but more like Dublin vs. Powell or even within Powell in the price range between $250k and $300k vs. between $150k and $200k. Each of these micro markets is different in the technical description of whether it’s a buyer’s market or a seller’s market (technically defined as more than 6 months of inventory).

Currently, the market inventory is extremely low in many areas and price ranges. For example, if you were to look at some of the more popular price ranges in areas that are traditionally in strong demand, you’ll find almost no inventory. My Economics 101 class that studied Supply and Demand seems to lead me to believe that the lack of supply with a steady or even rising demand will almost certainly lead to rising prices and that is now a seller’s market.

Already in the past few weeks, I have seen many multiple offer situations. In fact, I think that the last 3 or 4 offers that I’ve been involved with have been multiple offer situations with the final sales price ending up higher than the list price. I expect this trend to continue and probably become more extreme as the spring home buying season gets into full swing.

So, what’s “The Flip?” The Flip is what I’m calling what happened to our market. I was talking to a few of my “more seasoned” Real Estate Agent friends and they all agree that they’ve never seen the market change so quickly before or “Flip” from a Buyer’s to a Seller’s Market.

What to do about it? Well if you’re a buyer, it’s time to get into high gear to find your next home. Prices haven’t yet dramatically risen off of their lows, but they will soon. According to Fiserv, “The housing recovery is expected to grow at an annualized rate of 0.6% through the third quarter of this year, then gain momentum and prices are projected to grow 3.7% between the third quarters of 2013 and 2014 until settling down to 3.3% annual increases over the next 3 years.”

Interpretation: There has never been a better time to buy or trade up. With pricing still low, mortgage interest rates at historic lows, and the projected potential future price appreciation, it may be now or never. Don’t miss your opportunity to take advantage of this historic situation.

If you’re thinking of buying, selling or investing, please contact me for your FREE consultation. My team and I are trained to help you take advantage of today’s market. Give us a call… We can help!

1. The builder’s representative is the BUILDER’s representative, not YOUR representative. When a real estate agent is representing you to a builder, they have a fiduciary duty to represent YOUR interests, which likely aren’t the same as the builder’s.

2. Options! We can help you pick the RIGHT options so that you won’t overbuild your house and be stuck with the white elephant in the neighborhood. Since the builder usually makes a higher profit margin on options, do you think it’s possible that they may not have the same concern?

3. We have LEVERAGE with builders! We’re not building just ONE home with a builder, we represent MANY clients who are, or are going to, build homes. So, when issues arise, we may help the builder think harder than if it was just you raising the issue. Plus, everyone knows that Real Estate agents talk a lot – especially when a builder doesn’t treat our client right!

4. Location, Location, Location! We know what sells and what doesn’t – we’ll help you choose the lot so that you are well located within the neighborhood to ensure your ability to resell your house when you choose. After all, we hope to have a great house to sell in 5 – 7 years!

5. Our services are FREE to you with most builders. With most reputable builders, the pricing is the same whether you are using an agent or not. Many of these builders pay the commissions out of a separate marketing budget set up precisely to pay commissions so that they won’t be influenced when an agent is involved.

We have helped many of our client build homes in the Greater Columbus, OH area including Dublin, Delaware, Powell, Lewis Center, Westerville, Worthington, New Albany, Hilliard, Gahanna, Galena, Grove City, and other fine communities. If you are thinking of building a home, give us a call…we’ll be happy to help!

Single family homes and condo sales were up 15.5% in the Greater Columbus area over 2011 to highest number of sales since 2007, which is generally considered to be the last year of the last housing boom. Average home prices for houses sold including the entire year were $167,459, up 7.2% from the previous year, while the median sale price was up 8.7% over 2011 to $144,500.

While sales are up, the number of homes that are for sale is extremely low – only 9,252 which is the lowest in the past decade. These factors combined, point to an environment that should lead to increasing home prices and greater numbers of new homes being built.

93% of Ohio Realtors expect the housing market to be moderate to strong over the next 6 months and with interest rates still near all-time lows, it is truly the best time to buy a home – ever!

One of the lesser talked about facets of the recently passed legislation that averted (Or maybe just postponed) the “Fiscal Cliff” was an extension of the law that characterized the debt forgiven by banks due to a foreclosure or short sale as non-taxable.

Prior to 2007, if a home owner went through a foreclosure or short sale and their bank forgave a portion of the debt that they owed, then the money that was forgiven by the bank was taxable.  Talk about insult being added to injury!

The law was originally intended only to be in place for 5 years, but is now extended until 2014 with the passage of the “Fiscal Cliff” package.

That’s good news for folks in the foreclosure process  - the road to financial recover will hopefully be shorter for them.

It’s also good news for home buyers because that’s one less objection that a home owner may have to attempting a short sale and may produce more inventory for the market.  The short sale process is difficult enough with out having additional financial burdens for the sellers.

All in all, I actually approve of something that Congress did! : )

According to the Columbus Board of Realtors, sales of existing homes were up 30% from a year ago and the average price of homes sold from the first of the year through the end of November was up 7.2% to $168,198.

This has produced a declining inventory and in November of 2012 there were more than 20% less homes on the market than in 2011.

This inventory level represents only 5.5 months of supply and is therefore, technically speaking, a seller’s market.  This should continue to put an upward pressure on pricing.    The only catch for sellers is that many buyers are unaware of the technical facts and continue to negotiate as if it’s still a buyer’s market.

Interest rates are forecast to remain low for the foreseeable future and so I expect that many homeowners in Central Ohio will decide to trade up this year and we will continue to see existing home sales and new home sales increase.

All in all great news for the Columbus Ohio Real Estate Market!