Daily-Weekly-or Monthly Observations                                       3-25-2025​​

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​Pricing has become the watchword for today’s real estate sales in Heather Ridge and pretty much the rest of the nation. What is “pricing” and why is it important?

Price and value are nothing new to real estate, but knowing how they relate to each other is crucial when markets go out of balance. The old axiom, “Value is what you get, and price is what you paid,” is best understood in balanced markets.

A balanced home sale market can be described in several ways:

•Ratio between homes for sale and pending sales
•Days on market; number of closings
•Price appreciation measured monthly and annually
•Inventory supply relative to demand
•The economy (jobs, income, inflation, interest rates)

Beyond such “hard” quantifiable measures lies the soft world of subjective economic analysis. Called “vibes or vibecessions,” aka consumer sentiment, it goes to the heart of how people are feeling about the economy and their place in it. No less than the economist John Mayard Keyes called "vibes" the “animal spirits” that can sway the strongest of markets, good or bad.

When housing markets are going out of balance, experienced real estate agents, Realtors, know the telltale signs and vibes listed above. Like Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart’s 1964 statement about pornography, “I know it when I see it,” seasoned agents can spot changing markets before others have their morning coffee. 

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How important is this to a seller today? Very. Most owners still see their home’s value in yesterday’s market. With that thinking, it’s all too easy to not see today's market and over price a home for sale.   

During the Great Recession, 2007-2009, many sellers faced falling prices near or below their mortgage balances. As the market was collapsing then, experienced agents helped many sellers make tough choices to price below others to get their home sold  before things got worse. 

On the opposite side, the Covid market 2020-2022, agents on top of their game saw a market developing where "over-pricing" wasn't a bad thing.  Demand was growing almost exponentially for fewer and fewer homes for sale.  That drove prices up beyond normal expectations creating appraisal problems and contract issues. The more experienced agent created new marketing terms that managed or bypassed many of those issues getting top dollar for their sellers,   

All this brings us to today’s market. It isn’t a bad market, yet not a great one either. It seems “indifferent” to the needs of buyers and sellers. To induce buyers, sellers are offering more and more concessions. February's local statistics say prices are still rising BECAUSE inventories are low, but others have deep suspicions about that.  Also "affordability" problems driven by inflation and "economic" are daily headlines. Buyers are hesitant and acting like your average house cat, "What's in it for me?"

If a seller clearly knows why they are selling (motivation) and understands the housing competition (market), then pricing their home's value should be straightforward. If a seller sells for less than originally planned, there’s always the possible of buying for less in the same market. This rationalization is valid.  A seller's needs and motivation go hand in hand.