Whether buying, selling, investing or just browsing, we may have just had the best week in real estate. Over the last several years, experts analyzed housing market trends to determine the best time to list a home. This year, realtor.com shared the findings and predicted that April 10 to 16 was the sweet spot, citing “the ideal balance of housing market conditions that favor home sellers, more so than any other week in the year.”
Whenever you’re selling a home, how you price it will determine your level of success and, believe it or not, there is a right and wrong way to price your home. Since a home is only worth whatever a buyer is willing to pay, being in a seller’s market is not an invitation to ignore market value. If you underprice your home, you decrease your future buying power, leave money on the table by undervaluing your house and leave the door open to buyers thinking there is something wrong. Overpricing your home may require a price reduction (often referred to as a “market correction” or “price improvement”), which could raise red flags with buyers. Listing too high also eats away at your precious days on market and limits your buyer pool. Pricing your home strategically close to market value increases the likelihood of multiple offers, giving you the best chance to land at or above list price. Your home is more apt to sell quickly with a market-value pricing strategy.
As tiresome as it may be to hear that we still are in a seller’s market, buyers are contributing to this trend. Millennials are the largest living adult generation and they are in their prime home-buying season. Coupled with a more-lenient and expansive work-from-home trend, causing an increased interest in comfortable housing and living farther from the workplace, buyer demand is strong. While home prices remain high, the recent increase in interest rates drives buyer motivations and purchase timelines. Locking in their current rate helps buyers maximize their purchase power for a little while longer in preparation for an expected additional increase in the following months.
The Monadnock Region offers an almost alchemical combination of location, opportunity, affordability, lifestyle and appeal. Visitors, whether by accident or on purpose, find themselves wanting to stay. Here they can have the best of everything: all four seasons, the beach and the mountains, access to medical care and education, job prospects and convenience, privacy and community and a lower cost of living. As Luca Paris, president of the Greater Keene & Peterborough Chamber, likes to say, “We are less than two hours and one flight from anywhere and everything. The Monadnock Region is the center of the world.” It’s no wonder incredible buyer demand for the homes and land in our area persists.
As we’ve seen over the past three pandemic years, buyer demand, enhanced by historically low interest rates and a dramatic, sustained shift in how and where we work, the Monadnock Region could be Boston’s hottest new suburb.
Lisa Riley is director of operations for Halliday Real Estate of Bean Group in Peterborough.