With Memorial Day behind us and the finishing touches being placed on most of our summer plans, many of my customers are asking what to expect from the coming “summer market.”
In general I have always felt that the real estate market in Bergen County is four seasons long and other than a few notable exceptions, it is always a good time to try and sell or buy your home in this area. (Even in a blizzard…one cold January morning I took a sigh of relief after cancelling all my showings for the day as snow descended on our area. I felt like a kid on a snow day but sure enough my buyer called and said, “Snow? No problem. I have four wheel drive. I’ll pick you up!”)
In a typical year the time period between Memorial Day leading up to the camp season is the busiest in terms of “essential” real estate activity. Sellers are still listing their homes trying to catch the last of the buyers looking to settle in before September. There are sales galore as all the homes that went into contract in March and April at long last are headed to closing. Inspections, appraisals, walk throughs, surveys…
A straight look at the statistics indicates that, on average, 130 houses are sold during the busy third quarter of the year as opposed to about 75 homes during the slower first quarter. A drop for sure, but to say that homes are not selling during these times would be inaccurate.
How will this translate to our summer season? With there still being so few homes available on the market compared to prior years there are definitely buyers “circling the waters” who have either not found the right home or who have found the right home but were outbid in their attempts to purchase. With interest rates still remaining low these buyers are motivated, for sure, and if someone is looking to sell their home, anything priced accurately will be snatched up by one of these remaining candidates. Inventory, while slightly up from the lows earlier in the year, still remains sparse.
Nechama Polak is the broker of record and owner of V and N Group LLC located at 1401 Palisade Ave, Teaneck. [email protected] 201-826-8809.
