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Featured Listing

8288 Spyglass Drive: $ 2,100
Bedrooms: 3, Bathrooms: 4

Market Report - Mar 2009

HOME SALES ARE INCREASING
AS BUYERS SEEK VALUE 

Amongst all the doom and gloom of financial and housing market news, we are seeing a small bright spot as the number of homes sold in our area increased in January, 2009 compared with January of 2008.  Nearly 10 percent more homes were sold this past January compared with a year earlier. While prices continue to track downward, we are seeing more buyers in the marketplace than we have seen in the past few years.  They are willing to buy… but they are bargain hunting.

Many buyers are going after “short sales,” because they believe they can get a better deal.  With at least 28,000 homes on the market in Palm Beach County today, about 6,400 are identified as short sales in our Multiple Listing Service and another 2,000 – 3,000 have already foreclosed.  (A short sale occurs when the property is sold for less then the owner owes to the bank.)  That means almost one in three homes on the market in Palm Beach County today is under water.  And when you recognize that the median home price in our area is about where it was in June, 2003, it is understandable that so many homeowners have loans exceeding the value of their home.

But savvy, patient owners who price their homes competitively are selling them.

The Weiss-Clawson Team, a Keller Williams Triple-Gold Award Winning Team for 2008, has been successfully listing and selling throughout the area.  Last year we sold homes in Ironhorse, Steeplechase, Osprey Isles, Siena Oaks, Woodbine, Midtown at the Gardens, Abacoa, Locks Landing, Montecito, Flagler Pointe and Bear Island.  In fact, we were involved in about 70 percent of the sales in Ironhorse.  This year, we have listings throughout the area and contracts pending this month on homes in Ironhorse, Evergrene, North Palm Beach, the Acreage, and Mirasol.

So what will get your house sold?

It is a combination of price and how well the house shows.  We will work with you to help place your home in the pricing category where it should sell.  The basic parameter used is simply dollars per square foot, with the price adjusted upward or downward depending on condition of the house, location within the community and upgrades. If your home is priced too high, a likely buyer will never see it.

And the house must show well.  Buyers looking at a home want to envision themselves living in the home with their belongings.  That is not easy to do when the home is cluttered or unkempt.  It is smartest to put away many, but not all, of your personal items and family pictures.  You want the home to appear “warm” and “lived-in”, but you do not want buyers spending time looking at your pictures rather than at the way the house would look as their own home.

We look forward to hearing from you and to working with you, your friends and relatives on real estate needs throughout the Palm Beach County area.