Grand Rapids Forest Hills Home Inventory Climbs

This graph shows the housing inventory available in the Forest Hills

School District for the last 14 months. Forest Hills Area has been one of the

strongest markets here in the Grand Rapids region. As you can see, sales

remained strong during the late 2009 and into spring of 2010, with sales

failing to keep up with home inventory in July, supply starts to climb steeply.

The Reasons:

1.) The tax credit that expired at the end of April was a bonus for buyers

that were already searching for housing.  But it doesn’t appear to have

convinced fence sitters to enter into home ownership, regardless of interest

rates that are lower than anything we have seen in over our 37 year career

in real estate.

2.) Traditionally, home ownership in the U.S. has stayed around 62%

of households for many, many years.  When we hit the 2005 height of the

housing bubble, we were at 64%, an all-time high in home ownership.

Unless something changes drastically in our whole system, the same

38% prefer not to own or are unable to purchase a home for various

reasons.

3.) All the people that were holding back during the last 2 years have

decided to enter the market at the same time.  When things start looking

up, or at least not like the end of the world, sellers figure now is the time.

When lots of bodies jump into the pool, it gets crowded.

Mano a Mano Real Estate Advice:

Now is the time to sell your home IF you are ready to price it at or

below the competition AND your home looks as good or better than the

your competition.  Houses are selling, people are moving on with their

lives.  But as illustrated by the chart above, unless you are serious

about marketing your home in this buyer’s market, buyers have lots of

homes to choose from.

The market can change quickly. Contact us for the latest sales

information in your neighborhood so you can make a wise decision

about your real estate investment, whether buying or selling.
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The authors of the this blog write about Grand Rapids Real Estate,

the Greater Grand Rapids MI area, and what it is like to live in West

Michigan. Grand Rapids Michigan is a vibrant, growing metropolitan

area with a diverse business community, great medical research & services,

numerous universities, plus lively arts and entertainment of all kinds.

We believe: Grand Rapids is a Great Place to Live!

Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids MI Real Estate

Contact Terry   616-292-7263

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