The increased buyer activity has continued, and even intensified during the month of May. Over 70% of the homes currently in escrow received more than one offer. Inventory remains extremely low and the number of ready willing and able buyers continues to grow in size.
As you can see from the charts in the video, the price rise is now starting to show up in the year to date averages, and this brings me to an issue that is begging to rear its head in the last few weeks. Appraisals are coming in below the price the seller and buyer have agreed upon. One reason this is happening is banks are pulling appraisers in from all sorts of areas. The fact an appraiser may not know the nuances of the different micro markets can cause the appraiser to make serious errors in valuation.
I always make a point of being at the appraisal (this is not a universal practice), and will present my own comps to the appraiser and ask a few questions to make sure they know where to draw (and where not to draw) their own comps from. This can save a lot of headaches and delays to escrows closing.
Condominium prices are also starting to firm up, they had lagged behind the single family home market for quite a few months, now the average days on market is coming down significantly and the prices have started to rise as we see multipler bidders in this segment of the market more often now.
The message here is simple, if you have been thinking of buying, a home or a condo, right about now would be the time to do it.
