Happy spring, everyone! The winter appears to finally be over, and the warm temperatures and sunshine appear to finally be here to stay! Since our last mailbag I've received some excellent questions, so I wanted to take a moment and answer/respond to some of the emails. Again, thank you to everyone who took the time to reach out with their real estate related questions.
I got a few questions that were somewhat similar, and they were basically asking: where is the real estate market right now?
Now, to answer this question I will stick to "the facts" and refer to the first-quarter stats for our answer. The reason for this is that there is typical "seasonality" in real estate, along with larger trends that can all influence how the market is perceived, along with our own feelings/opinions. Not all buyers and sellers are the same, meaning, just because you think it is a good or bad time to buy does not make it factual across the board for everyone. For example, I have a client who bought their home over 30 years ago for less than $100,000 and to them the market is crazy expensive, and they would never pay what homes are currently selling for in the market. On the other hand, I have a client who is looking to buy their first home, and they are excited to begin looking because they and many others feel like buyers can really use leverage to find a good deal on a home that needs some work. Having gotten through that, let's get to the facts, and for these I will be referring to the quarter-one report from Windermere's own chief economist, Mathew Gardner, for Central and Southern Oregon (this can be found at windermere.com/market-update for those curious).
Deschutes County sale prices are down 10% overall from the same quarter last year. The average days on market rose by 29 days, year over year. However, for Deschutes County the average days on market for a property is 57 days, which is still remarkably quick. Overall sales in the county are down 42% when compared to the same period last year. The reason I wanted to stick to the facts is that different people will interpret these indicators differently, and I would very much like to hear what our readers think is going on or what will happen. Feel free to read through the report yourselves and see if you agree with my company's chief economist or not.
I got a couple of questions about my article a couple of weeks ago on Home Energy scores, and I wanted to explain a couple of things. The main purpose of the score is to give potential homebuyers a standardized and objective view of a home's energy efficiency. In the past — and for a few more weeks — buyers could ask for a copy or two of electric/gas bills to get an idea, however there can be large variances (how many people live in the home, average temperature, etc.) that are not reflected by simply glancing at a couple of bills. The other great piece is that the report you get makes a list of things you can do to make your home more energy efficient, such as adding insulation and sealing doors and windows better, all the way to big-ticket items like upgrading your furnace or ducting.
Again, thanks to all our readers and especially those who have taken time to email me with their questions at [email protected]. Looking forward to another mailbag in the summer!
