Buying and selling real estate is a hit-or-miss business. Sometimes it is a buyer's market, with a glut of properties and low prices. Sometimes it is a seller's market, with hundreds of buyers and not enough properties for sale. Even if you are not currently in the market to buy real estate, it is in your best interests to keep up with the current trends and signs that there is a shift looming in the near future. Here are three signs you can easily spot in your neighborhood that will tell you that real estate sales are on the decline, even if you are not looking to buy.
Lots of Houses for Sale on Your Street
If you have a lot of properties on your street that are suddenly up for sale, it can mean a lot of things. However, it generally means that some people think they can sell and get out of their houses now or in the very near future. The real-estate market is much more finicky than that—it plays like the stock market. If these houses sit for more than six months, you can bet that the real-estate sales are stagnant or declining, not rising.
The Prices on the Same Properties Continue to Drop, and No One Buys Them
If a house or two on your block started out with a sale price of 40 to 50 percent higher than its assessed value, and four to six months later the price has been dropped 10 to 20 percent of that, that is a sign of declining real estate prices too. This is especially true if the properties are luxury homes worth millions and the price drops below one million to get the property to sell. No buyers and no takers regardless of the drop in price equals declining real-estate prices.
Vacant-Lot Properties Sit Vacant for a Decade or More
Finally, a sure sign that real-estate prices are definitely declining is the sight of vacant lots and plots sitting vacant and owner-less for more than a decade. When a half-acre of land in the middle of a city just sits there all that time, it begins to lose value, drop in price, and almost become worthless to any buyer who is looking. If you drive by such a property for a decade or more, that shows that there is a problem with real-estate sales. However, if you should ever change your mind and want to buy some property, buying it under these circumstances is likely to produce a very good investment.
Talk to a company such as Thomas Brackin Real Estate for more information.
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