WSJ.com reports: National Association of Realtors says its becoming a Seller's Market.

In a recent article on WSJ.com, the news is that the National Association of Realtors has recently said it is now becoming a Seller's Market for national real estate sales. The article goes on to say: "The number of homes listed for sale in January fell by 4.9%, leaving 1.74 million properties on the market. That’s the lowest since December of 1999, when there were 1.71 million homes on the market. By contrast, there were 2.91 million homes on the market two years ago at this time."

It was also added that: "The upshot is that there’s a growing pool of buyers chasing a shrinking supply of homes. If the trend holds, prices will keep going up. At the current pace of sales, it would take just 4.2 months to sell the current supply of homes available for sale, down from a 6.2 months’ supply one year ago."

How does this relate to the Park City Real Estate Market?

This is precisely what we have been witnessing for a few months now in our local Park City real estate market. There had been an increase in sales which has highly reduced the inventory. The people who had to sell already did. The distressed properties have been bought up. Now the people who dont really need to sell are either waiting for pricing to come back up, or they are now pricing their properties at higher amounts, knowing buyers have little to choose from and may need to move up in price to get what they want.

At the same time there is this increase of buyers who are all out looking at a very limited inventory. When a good property comes up, it receives a lot of attention immediately. Buyers in today's Park City real estate market are reluctant to make a jump up in price, and sellers are pricing higher and have confidence they can wait for their number. It is leaving a huge gap bewteen the two.

We are finding buyers looking at real estate in Park City and Deer Valley to be very frustrated that they can no longer get the same great deals they have been hearing about from friends and family who bought in the last year or two. For many buyers they feel like they have waited too long and missed it.

Buyers need to understand they have not completely missed the boat. There are still good buys out there. But yes, you're going to pay a little more today, than your family and friends did a year or two ago. But the good news is the uncertainty of the market seems to have been removed. We really do appear to be on our way back up. The good news is we are only at the starting line, with a long road to climb back up (hopefully). If we are lucky we may see a long term price increase in real estate values. Hopefully it is a slow and steady ride, but only time will tell.

If you have questions about real estate in Park City or Deer Valley, please give us a call today at 435-901-2158.