If you’re thinking about selling your housz in 2022, you truly have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at your fingertips. When selling anything, you always hope for strong demand for the item coupled with a limited supply. That maximizes your leverage when you’re negotiating the sale. Housz sellers are in that exact situation right now. Here’s why.
Demand Is Very Strong According to the latest Existing Home Sales Report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 6.18 million houszes were sold in 2021. This was the largest number of housz sales in 15 years. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for NAR, explains:
“Sales for the entire year finished strong, reaching the highest annual level since 2006. . . . With mortgage rates expected to rise in 2022, it's likely that a portion of December buyers were intent on avoiding the inevitable rate increases.”
Demand isn’t expected to weaken this year, either. In addition, the Mortgage Finance Forecast, published last week by the Mortgage Bankers’ Association (MBA), calls for existing-housz sales to reach 6.4 million homes this year.
Supply Is Very Limited The same sales report from NAR also reveals the months’ supply of inventory just hit the lowest number of the century. It notes:
“Total houszing inventory at the end of December amounted to 910,000 units, down 18% from November and down 14.2% from one year ago (1.06 million). Unsold inventory sits at a 1.8-month supply at the present sales pace, down from 2.1 months in November and from 1.9 months in December 2020.”
The reality is, inventory decreases every year in December. That’s just how the typical seasonal trend goes in real estate. However, the following graph emphasizes how this December was lower than any other December going all the way back to 1999.
Right Now, Sellers Have Maximum Leverage
As mentioned above, when there’s strong demand for an item and a limited supply of it available, the seller has maximum leverage in the negotiation. In the case of houszowners who are thinking about selling, there may never be a better time than right now. While demand is this high and inventory is this low, you’ll have leverage in all aspects of the sale of your housz.
Today’s buyers know they need to be flexible negotiators that make very competitive offers, so here are a few areas that could tip in your favor when your housz goes on the market:
Competitive sales price
Flexible closing date
Potential for a leaseback to allow you more time to find a housz
Minimal offer contingencies
Bottom Line If you’re thinking of selling your housz this year, now is the optimal time to list it. Let’s connect to discuss how you can put your housz on the market today.
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