March certainly came in like a lion, and we haven't seen the lamb yet, but the real estate market thinks that it's spring (which, tomorrow, it technically is). New listings are popping up, with buyers hot on the trail of the new homes. Many properties are going under contract very quickly, although there could be impediments arising that haven't appeared yet.
We are finally seeing the lack of supply that the rest of the country has been seeing for the past couple of years. Our traditionally slow season has been very busy, with sales much higher than usual for the past four months. For example, we have closed more than twice as many residential sales in the past two months than we did in the same time period last year. In addition, the lack of supply is causing prices to rise, at long last. For the same period, we saw prices increase by 30%. Even though we are only looking at two months, that is building off of a November and December much above the prior year as well.
If you are a seller, please consider listing as quickly as you possibly can, for the best chance of selling your property at a good price. If you are a buyer, you should be actively pursuing houses that interest you, and you should assume that time is of the essence on offers and notifications. We have seen examples of higher offers coming in before earlier offers, which had been verbally accepted, got signed, and we don't want to see that happening to you. The old paradigm of "take your time, and more will be available next week, and maybe even something you like better" (which I refer to as the Tinder issue), is definitely gone.
So we are all looking forward to a busy and productive spring season!
