By Todd Fahlman
I’m tired of the real estate “Chicken Littles” you hear who analyze using fear mongering.
Justified or not it can create a collective response called the Chicken Little Syndrome, which can exploit horrible conclusions that stop people from doing anything.
There are valid reasons to pay close attention to the fluctuations in the real estate market if you are planning to either purchase or sell some property.
No one wants to undersell their home or overpay for a property either.
Regardless of what is happening in the market people still are selling and buying homes.
For example in every up or down market people are forced to sell as a result of job loss or relocation, death and divorce.
Also, people make buying and selling decisions solely based on social factors such as increased family size, downsizing, a new job or a higher wage.
It’s important to look at four factors.
1. Supply: Buyers and sellers must pay attention to it when planning to sell or making a purchase.
The supply of homes locally has doubled compared to last year at this time.
It’s easy to understand why home prices have seen a measly increase of .6 percent year-over-year from the median sales price of $375,000 to $377,250.
2. Demand: Our area remains the hottest spot in Snohomish County for affordable housing.
Just south of us the median sales price around Bothell is $675,000 and Lynnwood comes in at $496,000.
3. Mortgage lending: The availability of money and the ease to access it for home buyers plays a vital role. If money is too difficult to get we will see demand decrease and supply increase.
If home mortgages become too easy to obtain problems develop. Money is still available for home buyers.
The stiffened guidelines to qualify for a home loan ensure that today’s borrowers can afford the homes they are buying and reduce the rate of foreclosure.
4 Employment: Some parts of Snohomish County have employment that provides a higher wage than others.
For example the average salary in Bothell is $60,134 a year compared with Marysville at $40,386. The future looks bright for better wages in our area with development of the Arlington Marysville Manufacturing Industrial Center.
The sky is not falling on your real estate dreams of buying or selling. We are experiencing a balancing of our market.
Mortgage interest rates are stable, we have a nice supply of homes and prices are not bottoming out.
Todd Fahlman writes a monthly real estate column for this newspaper.
