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Many industry experts, Truth about Real Estate and Dr. Jack C. Harris, an economist with Texas A&M University Real Estate Center, define markets as the following:

• Seller’s Market

  • Existing inventory of 6 months or less

• Balance Market

  • Existing inventory of 6-12 months

• Buyer’s Market

  • Existing inventory of 12 months or longer

Going back a couple years in my life, I was just getting interested in real estate, and it was a “sellers market.”  For sale signs would go up, and then down, almost immediately. 

 I didn’t pay enough attention to the real estate world to realize that there are so many things that affect home prices.  I thought that values would keep going up, and I’d never be able to jump in.  I went to windermere.com  every day and searched for homes in Las Vegas, Arizona, and Utah, because I thought I would have to move there to be able to afford to buy a home.

What I’m getting at, is that 2005-2007 was a seller’s market. The seller always had the upper hand, buyers just wanted in.  A buyer had a lot less trouble getting financing. 

Now that it takes a little more than batting your eyelashes at the bank to get a loan, there is a smaller pool of buyers out there.  Sellers will put there home on the market, and because there are fewer ready, willing, and able buyers, the seller’s home will sit, and sit.  After a while of few or no showings, no, or no good offers, the seller might consider lowering their price, or advertising that they will pay closing costs, accept lower offers, or who knows, include their car…

This is a buyers market, which means the buyer is in control.  You can put in a low offer.  You can ask for closing costs to be paid by the seller.  Prices are already low, interest rates are low.  The $8,000 tax credit is available for first time home buyers, a $6500 tax credit for already homeowners.

The oldest investor tip in the book is “buy low, sell high.”  Well, buying low means buying now, in this buyer’s market!

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