Get Ready for Northwest Arkansas’ Spring Housing Boom!
March 23rd, 2009 categories: Home Owner Tips, Market Conditions
It’s officially spring and it looks like a combination of lower mortgage rates, the spring surge, inventories, home prices, and government intervention are about to create a perfect storm for a swarm of selling and buying of property in Northwest Arkansas.
Whoa…what’s about to happen?
We’re seeing it already. Sellers that have been itching to sell their existing home and make a move are chomping at the bit to take advantage of current home prices, inventories, and interest rates and are ready to list and sell their homes now. This will create a flood of new inventory on the market this spring and summer as well as a flood of new buyers. Home prices may fall some more but homeowners can capitalize anyway!
NEWS FLASH…Things are never as bad as some people make them out to be!
Because of the concentrated efforts of the Obama administration, the Fed, Realtors, and Homeowners it looks like the world will not actually end. That’s great news! Even better news is how many homeowners are in a position to make a great upgrade in home ownership for the minimum of cost. Allow me to explain.
The way to get a killer home upgrade today
Here’s the dealio. Take your ’starter home’ you purchased for $165,000 in 2003. Unfortunately, that home is now worth only $142,000. In a good situation, you have put somewhere between 5-20% down and can afford the hit you are going to take the house. You are upgrading after all.
Now…Go home shopping. You find a great home in Northwest Arkansas…It’s listed at $385,000 and it’s nearly 4,000 square feet. It’s got a big yard, in a wonderful neighborhood. A couple of years ago the house was listed for $550,000…let’s put it in a nice chart to bring the point home:
What’s more…interest rates are ridiculous right now! Ridiculously LOW. Well qualified buyers can easily get rates under 5%.
How am I so sure?
Mortgage refinancing applications have been rising for weeks and months, inventories are high but steadily falling, foreclosure rates are grossly over exaggerated nationally with foreclosures concentrated in a few key counties…mostly in California. These along with a general hike in buyer and seller confidence in the market as well as the normal ’spring surge’ are all signs that the real estate market in Northwest Arkansas and around the country have no where to go but forward/up/get better.
What do you need to do?
There are three steps to deciding if now is the time to list your current home and buy a new one. It goes without saying that first-time home buyers should DEFINITELY BE LOOKING…for the rest of us…here are the steps:
- Know your current home’s market price. Only a Realtor can give you this number with any accuracy. I happily give out free home evaluations. If you don’t use me…use a Realtor that you trust.
- Search for Homes…that’s a no-brainer.
- Look into your financing options. You can contact me for my short list of lenders and mortgage brokers I trust.
That’s it…that’s all you need to do to potentially make a great investment in your future and have a great new home with excellent financing to boot.
