When's the Best Time to List Your Home in 2016?

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By all accounts, 2015 was a good year for real estate. The National Association of Realtors just came out with the figures, and home prices are up 8% here in the West. In 2016, we can expect home prices to go up again, but probably only by 4 to 5%. When is the best time of year to put your home on the market in 2016? The answer is right now. Here's why.

1. There are a lot of buyers in the market, and not many homes for sale.
   Homes typically exit the market over the holidays, and most don't return until late spring or early summer. Inventory is currently low, and buyers aren't able to find the right house. If you're a seller, now is the time to list, because fewer homes on the market means less competition for you!
2. Interest rates are historically low. In fact, right now they are lower than they were at the end of 2015! Low interest rates gives buyers more purchasing power. For example, with a $1,600 monthly payment, a buyer can afford a $350,000 house right now. If rates go up 1%, like they're projected to, that same $1,600 a month will only get them a $310,000 house. If purchasing power goes down later in the year, that will hamper sales. Right now, buyers are trying to purchase before rates go up.
3. It's an election year. During election years, housing tends to slow down the closer we get to November. People wonder who will win, what policies will change, and how will the new President shape the economy? Most buyers take a wait-and-see approach, so you don't want your home to be sitting on the market at the end of December.

As you can see, now is a great time to list your home. If you have any questions about today's video or about real estate in general, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you!

How we helped Steven Williams sell his home by going above and beyond.

“The results were good. He listed a property for me and I was really happy with the follow through. We ended up having to relist the home twice because the first buyers fell out of escrow and didn’t close, so potentially he had to do twice as much work to close the transaction one time. He had to work twice as hard for just one commission check!”

-Steven Williams, Home Seller

How we helped Michelle Cleary get a great deal on her new home

“Justin was really helpful. We really liked working with him. We were house hunting for 6 months or maybe more and we just met him at an open house. He listened to all of our crazy offers and he put them in for us. And we ended up getting a really good deal on our house. He was very helpful to us. One thing that was really nice in general was our house was kind of a lengthy process because the sellers had a lot of issues and things that came up throughout it so we were actually in escrow for several months in the end and it was a normal sale so that was kind of difficult. But he was always there on top of things and constantly updating me even to the very last thing of getting the garage door opener and the mail keys from the previous owners; he was on top of it! So in general he went above and beyond for us.”

-Michelle Cleary, Home Buyer