Everywhere you look in the media you see a lot of negativity and rarely positive news. The real estate market is really no different.
What we have to keep in mind in Pennsylvania is when we are watching CNN, MSNBC, and the rest they are quoting national information. When the real estate market “crashed”, some areas were affected much more drastically than others. The areas that suffered the most were the ones that went up in value the most during the height of the real estate bubble.
In Southeast Pennsylvania, values rose during that time but not quite to the extreme of what other areas saw. When banks stopped lending money to those that no longer qualified for their programs there were less buyers which did affect our market. While we saw a decline in sales and more foreclosures than before it was nothing like that in other larger areas.
Has real estate returned to where it was? No. However, homes are still selling and people are still looking and buying. The thing to keep in mind here is real estate basics. When you call a real estate professional, we compare your home to similar ones that have sold. We can pretty accurately pinpoint a price range where your home will sell. Those that can sell for that amount and list with a professional usually do sell in a reasonable amount of time. The homes that don’t sit are ones that are listed for higher than homes are selling in hopes of finding a buyer.
If you go into selling your home with the mind frame of “if it sells, good because I don’t have to sell at this time” and list it above other comparable properties – chances are your home will sit on the market and become a statistic. The longer a home sits on the market and has more price reductions, new home lookers might bypass your home thinking there is something wrong with it even though it is now priced where it should be.
The bottom line here is…price it right and it will sell. If you have any questions on what your home is worth, call us today for a free market analysis or click here and tell us about your home and we will get back to you with your home’s value.
