Back in the old days of real estate the Realtors® would work hard up until the end of June and then they would take the summer off, as did most of their clients. Over the past many years the Spring market has lasted well into the summer with usually just a short break in the dog days of August. We are definitely feeling old school with the slow pace of listings and even slower pace of sales heading into summer this year.
If the real estate market were like a game of golf we would probably be on the back nine right now wondering if we were going to pull our game together or bogey our way to the clubhouse. If you are a Seller you are definitely wondering how your game fell apart so quickly after hitting the fairway with every drive and sinking every putt through the beginning of the season. The confusing part might be why the Buyers haven’t picked up their game as we finish out the season. The market has definitely started to slow down early for the summer and the jury is still out on whether the Sellers who sold in March hit the hole in one or if the Buyers grabbing properties during this quieter time will be the ultimate winner.
This week we had to order three extra bottles of water for the water cooler as it seemed everyone was spending an inordinate amount of time chatting about what to do next in real estate. We watched as the listings went down before the long weekend and as expected that resulted in lower sales last week. And as is typical after a long weekend the numbers of new listings jumped substantially thereafter. The trend we have been watching carefully is the number of sales that are occurring above their listed price.