Prior to 2004, homes values in Gainesville increased from year to year in a steady upward flow of about 3 to 6% per year. Then in 2004 and 2005, Gainesville’s home sales growth accelerated along with the rest of the nation with annual appreciation well into the double digits. During this period, the normal slowdown after the summer surge just didn’t occur. Investors were still avoiding the stock market, college students and parents kept capitalizing on the low interest rates and as the rest of the nation experienced, values just kept rising as the buyers flooded the market from June, July, and August well into Fall, Winter and right on through to Spring. The natural drop in home sales went from frenzy to steadily fruitful.Now the craziness has come to a halt and what once was accepted as a normal falloff from the summer season is described more as a defining moment as the gauntlet of power has shifted from seller to buyer. As most fall and winter seasons are, it is very much a buyers’ market. The difference this year is that it marks the end of the over exaggerated acceleration in appreciation and begins the marketable drop-off of investors from the pool of buyers and sellers. The quick flip won’t be as quick and the art of negotiation, marketing and attention to detail and repair will return.
There’s a normal cycle to home sales. A seasonal cyclical pattern of buyer and seller activity that’s higher in the summer between school years and a slower but steady level of activity in the remaining year for job changes, marriage and divorce.
Fortunately for Gainesville’s buyers and sellers, really anytime is a good time to buy or sell with our added transitional nature in housing turnover caused by the University of Florida and Shands Teaching Hospital.
The values of the last 2 years are stabilizing and slowing down in their growth – and just like the normal patterns of past years we should expect values to increase by 3 to 6%, summers sales should be heavier and buyers will be king come fall.
Seller Tip
In a more competitive buyer's market, presenting your home effectively can make the difference between getting a great price or not selling your home at all. One of my favorite resources is AETV's "Sell This House", featuring home owners having problems marketing their properties. Each week Tanya Meme, the show's host, and her designer,Roger Hazard, tackle a "problem" home, and best of all, they do it in only 3 days and usually for less than $500. The transformations often seem miraculous, and homes that had been sitting for many months often sell within days after the re-design.
For more information, and a schedule of upcoming shows, go here:
http://www.aetv.com/sell_this_house/index.jsp
