What’s the latest news from our real estate market as the summer winds down?
July was a boom month for our market. Normally, the activity we saw would’ve been spread out across the spring market, but the shutdown pushed everything back a couple of months. As a result, we’re seeing some interesting trends emerge.
The first involves closing dates. Ordinarily, buyers allow themselves a cushion of time to get settled before the school year starts, but now closing dates are happening right as school start again. It’s also taking buyers longer to get into homes due to low inventory. The Prior Lake and Spring Lake markets, in particular, have low inventory and soaring prices. Demand is high for lakeside homes, but there aren’t a ton of properties available.
“July was a boom month for our market.”
This type of activity has had a big impact on appraisals. Typically, we see a one-week interlude between the inspection and appraisal for a home that’s under contract, but that period has been stretched to two or three weeks. This means more communication with lenders and more pressure on appraisers, whose ranks are already lower due to COVID.
The last noteworthy trend involves personal property and seller furnishings. It’s common for sellers to offer furniture to buyers as part of the sale, and buyers to request to purchase furniture inside the house. Now, though, sellers just want to walk out of the house, hand over the keys, and be done with the sale. Some are advertising their homes as fully furnished, while some buyers are notifying their sellers that they can leave whatever they want in the house and they’ll deal with it.
If you’d like to know more about what’s happening in our market or are thinking of buying or selling soon, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to be of service.
