It seems as though just as I get back from the beach, everyone else starts traveling! Good to be back though.
While walking into my office today, I couldn’t help but notice the latest volume of Columbia’s MLS book. It is HUGE!!! It is almost as big as the Columbia phone book! I could not believe it. Looking at it, one would probably think that we are in a slow market. Some may say a buyer’s market. This may be true in some areas, but not all.
As Tip O’neil said, “All politics are local.” This is so true in real estate. The downtown Columbia market has a plethora of sellers, but also has a great number of buyers. Most of the Realtors I know have buyers that are ready and willing to purchase. They just have to feel through more “weeds” to get to to the right home for them.
In many areas of Columbia (suburbs), the amount of buyers is not keeping up with the amount of listings. What I am saying is, real estate markets are almost “Super Local”.
At present, I am carrying about 15-18 listings, with 5 or 6 more that are ready to hit the market as soon as I can take the pictures. My listings dot Columbia from Chapin to Lake Carolina, with most being downtown. This may be the most that I have enjoyed in my real estate career. About 35ish% of them have offers on them or are Under Contract. However, I probably have 30 or 40 buyers! My own personal business tells me that Columbia is just fine. At the moment, buyers simply have a lot to look at.
Furthermore, while looking at the Columbia MLS book, one must consider the massive amounts of new neighborhoods and condo projects on the market at the moment. We will save that for another post.
Don’t get me wrong, your house may sit a little longer than it would have 2 years ago. In my recent experience though, if you have a nice home and a good Realtor to market it and advise, it should “pop.”