Here’s why it’s not too late to take advantage of recent appreciation.
Recently, many of my sellers have expressed concern about our shifting market. They feel like they’ve missed the boat and can’t help but look at the market with a glass-half-empty mentality. If you feel this way, today I want to remind you that while our market is definitely changing, things probably aren’t as bad as you think.
Our market truly started to get crazy once the pandemic hit. Interest rates were historically low, and demand was about as high as I’ve ever seen it. However, the pandemic was never going to last forever. On top of that, our low interest rates were unsustainable. A shift was inevitable, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Over the last two years, homes across the country appreciated at unprecedented levels. Around 10 to 12 years of normal appreciation were squeezed into a two-year period. We won’t see this type of appreciation again for a long time, but if you owned your home before the pandemic, you can still take advantage of it.
“Our market is moving towards where it was before the pandemic.”
For example, a client of mine was about to list their home for $1.25 million, and they were a little disappointed by the price. They were considering waiting until the market became more favorable for sellers again. To me, this was ridiculous, so I went back and looked at comparable sales from a year ago in 2021. Just a year ago, his home would have been worth around $800,000. In 2020, it would have been worth somewhere in the high $600,000 range. In just two years, his property appreciated by close to 100%.
The truth is that if you need to sell right now, you’re still going to get a fantastic deal on your home. If you’ve been holding on to an investment property, you received a crazy bump in appreciation the last two years, and it’s a great time to liquidate. Our market is still strong for sellers; it just resembles what we saw before the pandemic more closely.
