Hey, welcome back to our How’s the Market? Our monthly collaboration with our friends at Keeping Current Matters to inform you of what’s happening with the market trends today so you can be the expert for resources and information for your customers. Every month to prepare for this show, KCM founders, Steve Harney and I, exchange notes on what we’re saying and what we’re hearing. And this month we’ve got a pretty urgent message for you, so pay attention.
Here’s the deal. Now is not the time to take your foot off the pedal. Steve said it and I agree that the single most important thing we need to be working on right now is getting more listings, whether it’s to list them now or to get them ready in January. Listen, for nearly a year, the monthly year over year listing numbers were increasing, but that’s not the case when you look back at the last three months of available statistics. It was going up. Now it’s flat and in some cases going down. That’s right. July, August, and September of 2019 this year saw fewer listings taken than in 2018. And here’s the most troubling part. It’s how consumers are perceiving it.
A study by NerdWallet says that 45% of homeowners believe there are more homes on the market today than there’s ever been. Right? And when you look at the people that are considering making a move, the news actually gets worse. Listen to this, 58% of those people that are planning to sell in the next 18 months believe there’s more homes available now than last year. And guess what? As a result, they’re more likely to hold off. And of course wait until they perceive it to be the right time to sell. Whether that’s the spring market of 2020 or the spring market of 2021.
Now you and I both know it’s your job to educate and inform your database, your customers, your prospects, that this is not the reality in this market. And this is not actually in their best interest. You see, we both know it’s simply supply and demand. Supply of inventory will go up in the spring market, it always does, creating that buyer opportunity. So the number one reason why it’s actually a bad idea to wait is that sellers are going to face even more competition in the spring than they would say in November through March. More competition means lower demand for their home, which ultimately could mean less money at the closing and probably more hassles in the process all because the buyers have more options, more properties to choose from.
So more listings come onto the market in April, May, and June every year than any other three month period. People will say there are more buyers at that time as well, but the months of inventory numbers show that even with more buyers in the marketplace, those buyers have so many more options in spring than they do at other times of the year, which brings us back to the emphasis on you getting more listings now. Why? Because we’re actually right at the start of what we call the sweet spot for the most favorable selling conditions. Please write that down. And it’s better than any other time. Think about it, November through March.
Here’s another important point, another important number to know. New building permits are up 7.7% year over year, which also means, think about this if you’re talking to a seller, which means there’s going to be all kinds of new homes coming on the market this spring. The chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, Lawrence Yun, really said it best when he said, “We’ve got to continue to beat the drum for more inventory.”
So at the end of the day, what does all this mean to you? It means don’t just allow yourself to coast through these perceived, perceived slower months while you allow sellers to actually put themselves in less favorable selling positions. Instead, educate them, inform them, share the numbers, and show people why right now is a great time to list their home. And by doing so, you’ll set yourself up for a stellar finish to 2019 and you’ll have a great pipeline going into the new year full of listings and pending transactions. So what’s the message? Go get those listings and we’ll be back with a new How’s the Market? for you coming up in December. Take care.
