If you’ve been following along with our monthly Housing Market Updates lately, you’ll have noted that our local Utah real estate market has experienced some intriguing shifts over the past few months.
When comparing recent data with findings from earlier this year, statistics indicate that house prices are somewhat plateauing, homes are spending more days on the market, inventory levels are rising, and the overall pace of Utah’s markets is slowing.
In reading this, many might assume these are quintessential indications that our fast-paced housing bubble is beginning to burst and the market is on the brink of collapsing — however, that’s not what we’re seeing at all.
In lieu of all hearing about these market misconceptions, especially among the concerned sellers in today’s market, we’ve decided to help settle some minds by tackling some of the most popular misbeliefs in our blog post here.
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1. The Market Is Taking A Nosedive
Barring the last few months, Utah’s market for the past year or so has been hectic, to say the least. The median sales prices for homes skyrocketed alongside the average price per square foot, while both the number of homes available for sale on the average number of days they spent on the market both plummeted.
Buyers were over-eager to land a new property, to say the least, and were willing to pay more than they ever had to secure new homes. Sellers, on the other hand, held all the cards. The value of their homes were catapulting into entirely new price brackets and the longer they waited, the more leverage in negotiations they had.
However, things started to change around May of this year, when many of those metrics started to slow. As we stated above, house prices stopped climbing as rapidly and even began to slow down considerably. Houses were taking longer to sell, which naturally caused an increase in the supply of inventory available for sale.
Of course, this caused a minor power shift, with buyers gaining back some lost ground in the market. However, many concerned sellers and overzealous real estate pundits began to overstate this market shift, predicting it was the start of an inevitable nosedive. To us, all we saw were signs of an inflection point.
As longstanding Utah real estate professionals, we know that not every ‘negative’ shift is cause for concern, and that just because some of the metrics changed doesn’t mean the market is collapsing or regressing. We simply predict this is a natural plateau, which is probably beneficial to the overall health of our housing market.
These days it can be difficult to determine the current market value of your home, even if the market has started to slow down. The best way for you to find out what your largest asset is worth is to sign up for a free professional home evaluation here.
2. Sellers Have Missed Their Window
Due to this aforementioned shift in Utah’s housing data, another popular market misconception that has surfaced among sellers is the idea at they’ve missed the ideal window to sell their homes.
As the market reached its inflection point, specifically in terms of the steadying average sales prices and increase in average number of days on market, many sellers biding their time for the perfect opportunity to sell their homes for their highest value began to feel like they’d waited too long.
However, we’ve found ourselves reminding many of these dismayed sellers that it’s vital they note that those two factors aren’t necessarily bad things.
Yes, average sales prices have somewhat stopped climbing and waiting to sell your home won’t translate into earning more money. That being said, it won’t earn you any less either — house prices have already climbed to all-time highs and look like they’re staying there for the time being, not dropping. And, when it comes to the increasing average number of days listings spend on the market, those are also still very competitive in comparison to years past.
If you’re a seller, there’s no reason to start kicking yourself with regards to timing. Buyer demand is still very much here — there are still plenty of eager buyers who’d jump at the opportunity to get into the market again. The bottom line is, people’s needs and wants drive the market, and we’re still currently in an advantageous real estate climate for sellers when you look at the bigger picture.
Are you thinking about making the move to Salt Lake City, Utah? Take advantage of what could be a brief break in 2021’s hectic housing market and learn more about what it takes to live here via the related links below:
- Buyers: Battle Utah’s Congested Housing Market Like This
- Best Neighborhoods In Salt Lake City To Invest In
- The Cost Of Living In Salt Lake City: What It Takes
- Relocating To Utah
3. The Seller’s Market Has Reached Its Peak
Another common misconception we’ve been encountering recently from sellers is their concern that the hyper-profitable seller’s market has already reached its peak. As many of the key statistics we’ve already covered in this post have either somewhat stagnated or started working more in favor of buyers, many anxious sellers have either feared this inflection point is permanent or will kickstart a crash.
Needless to say, that’s not how we see it. While we very well could have seen the market reach its peak, that’s only a hypothetical possibility (like everything else is) at this point. In all actuality, we think the market has just as much of a chance of picking right back up again.
In fact, these market shifts have come at a very interesting time. Traditionally speaking, summer is the season when the market sees some of its lowest annual activity rates in any year, including this one. While last summer may have been an anomaly to this rule, this year we’ve seen somewhat of a return to normalcy.
From our side, we’re waiting to make any wholesale claims until mid-fall when vacationers and holiday-takers typically re-enter the housing market and the momentum picks back up.
Curious to see how comparable homes to yours are performing on the market these days? Find out by taking a look at our recently sold homes on our sold portfolio here.
4. Sellers Should Expect To Earn Less
As we touched on above, one of the most concerning statistics for sellers in today’s market surrounds average sales prices. Not only have average sales prices stopping climbing so rapidly, in many parts of Utah they’ve almost stayed the same… but just for the last month or two.
However, that’s certainly not the same as them decreasing and certainly doesn’t mean sellers should expect to earn less from their home sale than they may have earlier this year. Just because it might take a few more days on average to sell a home, or there are more properties on the market for buyers to choose from, doesn’t mean sellers should worry.
After a year or so of housing data setting very unrealistic standards for sellers, this will be an important practice of managing expectations. As far as sellers should be concerned, you should know that you can still list your property for sale and receive a competitive price for it within a relatively short timeframe. The demand is still out there and it still outweighs the supply — at the moment this misconception is nothing more than a premature frenzy.
Eager to take advantage of this seller’s market by listing your home for sale, but not sure where to start? Learn more about how we can help by visiting our Selling With Us page here.
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