Who’s On First, one of the most iconic and hilarious comedy sketches of all time,originally done by Abbott &
Costello was an exercise in concentration.
What made the sketch hilarious was poor Costello’s apparent inability to
retain important information given to him by his partner, Abbott. For those who’ve never heard this sketch,
enrich yourself by finding it via YouTube (you’ll thank me).
Those who already know what I’m talking about
are probably smiling as they’re reading this. The premise rests with taking a familiar topic
– baseball – and introducing a new and different way of interpreting something
that was heretofore second nature. What
does this have to do with real estate you ask?
Well, nothing – or everything…
Those who already know what I’m talking about
are probably smiling as they’re reading this. The premise rests with taking a familiar topic
– baseball – and introducing a new and different way of interpreting something
that was heretofore second nature. What
does this have to do with real estate you ask? Well, nothing – or everything…
The current landscape says that it’s a seller’s market with a national inventory shortage in place as the spring sales season kicked off this past President’s Day. Many industry professionals expected the market to remain tight, creating the scenario sellers have been purportedly waiting for; a seller’s market with open competition between buyers. Finally, time to cash in… Only somehow it’s not quite working out that way.
According to Redfin, new listings fell 1.1 percent from last year in April, although that’s not a huge number in of itself, but low inventory coupled with high demand makes any drop in listings unexpected not to mention unwelcome. Nela Richardson, chief economist at Refin believes that seller anxiety is driving this phenomenon, in a recent interview with CNBC’s Realty Check she said “Trade-up buyers seem to be losing their mojo heading into the heart of the spring selling season. A slowdown in new listings reflects a lack of confidence on the part of the homeowner that they can find a desirable home to purchase.”
The numbers seem to bear this out. In the Boston / New York / Philadelphia
market, Redfin has documented year-over-year declines of over 10 percent, and
nationally, April has continued a 90 day downward trend where home price growth
has fallen below the 12 month average
of 5.6 percent. Factor in the slowdown
in new home construction which has yet to rise to even meet the current demand (home builders are blaming high costs for land and labor together with new
industry regulation for this) the market will indeed remain tight. So, instead of the expected industry upturn in new listings and sales in a sellers’ market, it’s the sellers themselves that are slowing down the continuing recovery with their reluctance to actually sell. It seems inconceivable that with the perfect storm of low mortgage rates, job growth and high buyer demand that we could find ourselves here.
It’s becoming apparent that we have to re-think the approach to the real estate industry completely. There is a new normal.
Who’s on first?
Charles Pickens is an Auction Executive for
RealEstateAuctions.com in New York City. For more information about New York
auctions, contact Charles at 646-824-3350 or cpickens@omegaservicesgroup.com
