Weekly Special | December 9, 2019

Buyers To Face Shortage In Early 2020

The listing and sales numbers have been posted for November, and we are seeing the inventory tighten far more than we have all year.

The graph above shows the number of homes listed each month (red dot)

and the number of homes sold each month (blue dot). The average or trend of each is shown as a solid line.

When we see the two lines diverge, it means that relative inventory is growing. Of course the opposite is true as the lines converge, meaning relative inventory is declining.

This back and forth between the relative supply of homes (the supply of homes relative to the current rate of demand) helps us prepare both sellers and buyers for what they will face in the near future.

Currently, we are seeing the strongest sellers’ market since the beginning of 2018, and that experience taught us that for many price ranges, buyers are going to need to prepare for a bidding war.

For those that choose to wait, they should expect higher prices.

Holiday Hint Few people like to actively market a home or preview homes during the holidays, so both sellers and buyers have an opportunity to get ahead of the market if they are willing to suffer the inconvenience right now.

The original one-page Weekly Special PDF is still available.