A New Market Update for Columbia

What’s going on in Columbia right now? Here’s a quick look at the latest real estate market numbers.

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I’m here at one of my open houses (108 Summit View Ct. in Chapin) to bring you the latest market numbers for Columbia real estate. Here are some of the figures we’ve been keeping an eye on:

1. We’re up to about 12,000 sales this year. That’s a 4% increase from the 11,000 we saw last year.

2. The big news is with the average days on market. They have dropped from 84 days last year to 71 days this year.

3. The average price is up 2.5% from $188,235 to $192,831. That’s a nice, healthy appreciation. When we get into the 8% to 12% range, that will put us in the range we saw before the last bubble.

4. The average list-to-sale price is up from 97.8% to 98.9%

Inventory is low and demand is high.

What does this mean? Basically, we don’t have much inventory. We have buyers going crazy right now looking to buy houses, so if you or someone you know is thinking about selling anytime in the near future, don’t hesitate to give us a call. We would be happy to come over, take a look, and give you a realistic estimate of what your home could sell for.

If you have any other questions in the meantime, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

What the VC Summer Layoffs Mean for Our Market

The recent layoffs at the VC Summer nuclear plant mean home prices are likely to suffer in the surrounding area over the next year.

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This week, we received some terrible news—5,600 people lost their jobs at the VC Summer nuclear plant.

Obviously, this will be devastating for our area and all the families affected. If you’re one of those families members watching this video, I’m sorry this happened to you. I’ve been through layoffs in the past, and it’s no fun. If there’s anything we can do to help you, please don’t hesitate to give us a call.

This won’t be great for homes prices in the area around the plant for the next year, either. I’ve already had five people call me this past week telling me they needed to sell their house because they were out of a job.

If you’re a buyer, this is potentially beneficial because as prices dip down, you may be able to afford more house for the same price.

Make sure your home is in its best condition, has the best staging, and is priced as competitively as possible.

If you’re one of the people who need to sell your house because you’re moving, you’re about to enter a very competitive market. Make sure your home is in its best condition, has the best staging, and is priced as competitively as possible.

Like I said, I endured a couple layoffs at a much younger age in a previous career. It ended up being okay, though, and you’ll be okay too.

If you have any questions about this topic or need any help buying or selling a home in our market, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d be happy to help.

How to Take Advantage of Our Current Market

Conditions are ripe in our market for sellers to take advantage. If you’re a seller, though, there are a few things you should know before putting your house on the market.

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In case you haven’t heard, things are getting crazy right now in our Columbia area market right now.

How crazy? Lately, we’ve had 15% to 20% of our contracts become multiple offer situations, which I haven’t seen in our market in years. Buyers are on the prowl, and inventory is getting lower and lower. On a national scale, home prices are up 6%.

Buyers are on the prowl, and inventory is getting lower and lower.

In short, now is the time to sell your home if you’ve been considering doing so. However, you need to be careful about who you choose to help you sell your home. I’ve run up against a lot of other agents lately who are new to the game, and we refer to these types of agents as “three P agents,” meaning their sole gameplan is to put your house on the MLS, put a sign in your yard, and pray that it sells. We do that too, but we also utilize a 12-point checklist with our marketing program.

There are three main factors involved in selling a house. I order of importance, they are: price, conditioning, and marketing. If you price your house right and stage it to where it’s in good condition, the marketing will take care of itself. In addition to these three factors, our team does many other things to market our clients’ homes that you won’t see other companies do, such as Facebook ads, professional photography, open houses, etc. We check all the boxes off.

That’s the situation if you’re a seller. If you’re a buyer, you need to jump into our market quickly and be ready to pay full price for a home. There are a lot of hot properties out there and a lot of competition for them.

Whether you’re thinking of buying or selling, don’t hesitate to give us a call so we can help you accomplish all your real estate goals. We look forward to hearing from you!

Winter Market Update for Columbia

I get a lot of common questions about the real estate market in the wintertime, so I wanted to address them for you in episode two.

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With winter approaching, let me welcome you to episode two. I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the market; does it favor buyers or sellers, what’s happening with interest rates, and what’s going on in general?

I recently saw that inventory here in Columbia is about five months. They say a balanced level of inventory is about six months, so I think we’re edging toward a seller’s market. Prices are moving up, and this is good news for sellers. In fact, prices have gone up every year since 2011.

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Prices are moving up, and this is
 good news for sellers.

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As for interest rates, we all know that we just finished a crazy election, so there is some uncertainty out there. Rates moved up to about 4% for a 30-year conventional mortgage. If you’re looking for more specific details on home loans, we have preferred lenders that we’d be happy to refer to you.

Many have asked me lately whether now is a good time to sell a house, or whether you should wait until the spring. There are pros and cons to listing now, but if you do, you’ll face far less competition than you would in the spring. The only wrong answer is that now is the ‘wrong time’ to sell, because we’re busy all year round. We don’t take the holidays off like many other agents.

If you have any more questions about the market, don’t hesitate to give us a call or email us. We’d be happy to help you out.