January 11, 2019
What Does The Increasingly Limited House Inventory Mean for First-Time Homebuyers?
The news media has been flush of late with concern about the housing market. The concern, stemming from the natural human tendency to see negative trends wherever they may crop up and to extrapolate them into the future, is rooted in the news that the seller’s market we have seen since about 2016 has, perhaps, begun to cool. The indications are that home prices are not going up as quickly as they were before, that buyers are perhaps becoming wary of paying more for their homes than they may be worth in a few years. The talk among realtors in previously bustling locales is that they are no longer receiving multiple offers on the day of listing.
Naturally, this concerns those looking to sell their homes—sellers are always looking to get as much for a home as the market will allow—but by no means does it spell doom.
Especially for those looking to get into the housing market for the first time, this could even be seen as positive news. Those who have no equity built up on an existing home that they can sell to make a down payment on a new one have faced trouble getting into this market—which is one reason there has been much ballyhoo about how Millennials have not been buying homes (a claim which does not exactly bear scrutiny overall, but which does contain a grain of truth).
Yet despite this news of slowing price-rises, the facts remain: prices are rising, and the demand for homes—especially single-family homes—therefore remains high (even if not breathtakingly high). This means that, when up against a more experienced or well-heeled home-purchaser in an even marketplace, a first-time home-buyer is likely to face the hurdle of being outbid. This even despite efforts by Fannie Mae and the FHA in recent days to ease credit access for such first-time buyers—a fact that, naturally, results in first-time buyers taking on the added risk of potential default and increased debt in the form of higher interest rates.
Should a first-time buyer manage to make a successful bid for a home in Jacksonville, Florida; Rockport, Massachusetts; Cumberland, Rhode Island, or any other city in our service area, we here at Topouzis & Associates, P.C., stand ready to aid at closing. Not only do we act as a bulwark against problems of the past, performing title searches and ensuring clear title to property—we also back our services with offerings of title insurance (click here).
