The article, Home buying market so brutal, some home buyers make offer sight unseen, from www.usatoday.com, reports that although solid job and income growth is emboldening many prospective home buyers, record low housing supplies are driving up prices and curbing sales, especially for Millennials looking to buy starter homes. “For home buyers, this is shaping up to be one of the most difficult years in recent memory,” says Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist of Veritas Urbis Economics, which studies the housing market. Already, house hunters are waiving inspections, making offers without even seeing homes and bidding well above asking price. Yet Yun predicts sales will be flat compared to spring 2017 because of the skimpy supplies and reduced affordability for many buyers. In February, there was a 3.4-month supply of existing homes nationally, the lowest on record for that month and substantially below a balanced six-month inventory, NAR says.
We love to stay current on local real estate news as well, here at New Door Residential. In the Las Vegas area, the median home price has jumped about 12% over the last year and doubled the past five years, Attom figures show. Homes priced below $200,000 typically draw 15 to 20 offers, says Chris Bishop, managing broker of Coldwell Banker Premier Realty. To stand out, some bidders are writing letters to sellers, detailing what they like about the house, says Rob Pistone, a broker at Keller Willians Realty. Homes typically stay on the market 41 days, down from 52 days a year ago and a typical six months. Besides Millennials, demand is fueled by “boomerang buyers” who may have lost homes to foreclosure during the housing crisis and recently repaired their credit, Bishop says. Las Vegas was hit especially hard by the crash. “We just don’t have enough affordable housing,” says Bishop, who is president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. Sales in the area soared 34% in 2017 but fell 5% in February in a possible sign the supply crunch is damping activity.
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