Summer is Hot for Real Estate Activity, Too

Normally, most of the country sees a slowdown in real estate activity in July and August.  Although the days are longer, and some people have more time, vacations and outdoor excursions seem to take up the slack.  This year, though, we are seeing otherwise.

Buyers found ways to cope with the spring market, and managed to bid on, and buy, whatever was available.  Lack of inventory, both from COVID fears and for other reasons, put a damper on transactions in most places.  We, and others, sold almost everything we could list, but there still wasn't enough supply to go around. That means that there are plenty of potential buyers out there, even in the heat of summer.  Sellers should not wait until Labor Day to list.  If we could have this kind of group of buyers every year, we would all prefer to spread the season out, and avoid the crush of May.  This year, with school openings up in the air, and not the same everywhere, there isn't the same need to try to move during summer vacation.  In fact, there may be sufficient incentive to choose certain towns now, specifically for their school systems and operating procedures.  

I just went blueberry picking for the first time this summer.  While I do love blueberries, the experience has changed from open picking to a few specific bushes per picker, out of necessity.  It does seem, however, that maybe looking at houses would be as pleasurable as my outing was, and might lead you to the home of your dreams. So maybe that staycation can be put to good use!  Remember, summer is now for sales, and there's no time like the present to begin selling or buying. 

Report from Madison, Wisconsin

Every spring and fall, I meet in some city around the country with broker/owners of large, independent real estate companies.  I always come back with a balanced perspective on what's happening in real estate nationally.  These past couple of years, there are areas where Connecticut is part of the pack, and areas where we have fallen off the pace.


In almost every market, the year is shaping up to be a booming one for real estate.  Only in our state are prices still falling.  However, that still puts our average price right in line with many other places.  Inventory, which was a huge problem in the spring, seems a little looser in most states.  Here, it's a little tighter, but there is still more inventory than there would be in a seller's ideal market.  Many regions had big supplies of homes on the very high end, though, whatever that was for their area.  It was common for brokers to mention more than a year's supply on the upper sales.


Everyone was worried about what would happen with the new mortgage regulations, which went into effect this past weekend.  No one doubted that there would be hiccups along the way, even with buyers already in the pipeline.  Although the rules technically impact only new applications, there seemed to be evidence that at least some lenders were going back and amending applications already in progress. Mortgage issues may change from year to year, but there always seems to be some new issue that plagues us.


Madison is a market that has traditionally looked, at least in statistics, a lot like greater New Haven.  We are both dominated by big universities, along with smaller ones, and have a lot of public sector employees.  Madison, as the State Capitol, has a greater number of those, and, partially as a result, has a large middle sector of the market, with very little on the upper and lower ends.  New Haven and its suburbs, as we all know by now, are distinguished nationally by the spread between haves and have nots, and we do skew both high and low.  So our numbers may look the same in the end, but they are made up very differently, and, right now, that's causing Madison to outperform us substantially.  Their prices and sales are up, and the market is booming.  Here, as you know, it's still well below 2007 levels.  Let's hope that the outcry from business in the current legislative environment, plus the departures, will serve as a wake-up call to the State.  Let's catch up to Madison!

Playing the Odds

We were doing some research this week, and were startled to discover that, from January 2010 through the present date, only one-third of all listings taken have sold.  That means that, for every seller who put his or her home on the market and sold it, two sellers put their homes on and nothing happened.  If you add those people who haven't bothered to list their properties due to the poor selling climate, there is a big supply out there. 

Since real estate agents work solely on commission, this is obviously a troubling state of affairs.  We only get paid one out of every three times we list a home, and listing always used to be the guaranteed way to make money, since the percentage of buyers who look and don't buy is higher than that of sellers who don't sell.  The combination is deadly.

 It does prove, however, that sellers should be listening to their agents about the price and improvements necessary to attract an offer in today's market.  What's the point of cleaning everything up and making plans to move, only to sit there for two years without a sale?  If you do want to sell, you need to do more than just sign a listing--you actually need to have a property in the top third of all properties, in order to sell it.  That's food for thought.