National Home Prices Hit a New Low in 2011 First Quarter

Are you on the fence about whether to sell or wait it out? This week’s headlines might help make your decision.

According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices - National Home Prices Hit a New Low in 2011 first Quarter. David M. Blitzer, Chairman says “Home prices continue on their downward spiral with no relief in sight.”

According to Brett Arends at MarketWatch - It’s official. The house price collapse is now worse than it was during the Great Depression (percentage wise). Oh and in case you’re wondering, back in the Depression, it took 19 years for house prices to recover to their previous peaks.

Right now, we’re experiencing pricing adjustments back to about 2002. So if you purchased before then, it could be a good idea to sell before it drops further.

Normal inventory on the OBX is around 1200 properties…today, we’re over 3300. Basic economics has always told us higher supply equals lower demand. Until inventory levels recover, pricing will be low. It would take 20 months to deplete the inventory we have right now, IF nothing else came on the market.

I know what you’re thinking - Holy Smokes…is there a silver lining at all? Yes. Housing is now cheap. Super cheap. According to Capital Economics housing is now 24% undervalued, and is the cheapest it’s been in thirty-five years nationwide.

So what’s the point to this video? If you’d like to sell your home, we have 160 QUALIFIED buyers each month looking for the best properties! That’s up from last year, which was up from the year before as well.

Bottom line if you ARE thinking about selling go ahead and price it according to today’s market and reinvest your cash into something that will actually GROW over the next few years. You’ll get your money back. Waiting it out is not a good strategy, especially if the home is costing you out of pocket each month. What’s the sense in waiting?

If you DON’T need to sell…fantastic. Keep enjoying your vacations here and hold on for the ride!