Tips To Shorten Days on Market for Sellers

 Days on Market (DOM) is an important term when it comes to selling a home. DOM is defined as the number of days a home has been listed for sale basically the time from the date a home is listed for sale to the date it closed.

The lower DOM the better the housing market in that certain area. The longer a home stays up for sale, the more detrimental it can be for the listing. Higher days on market can raise a red flag to buyers who will question why it hasn’t sold yet.  Here are some tips to follow to help ensure a fast sale of your home.

Understand your local housing market

Today's market in almost every location across the country is a seller's market. It comes as no surprise that there are more buyers than sellers with such low inventory in today's housing market. When it is a seller's market, homes stay on the market for a shorter period than if it is a buyer's market. This can vary from the location in the country and even by neighborhood. Get to know your local housing market to get a better understanding of buyer demand for your house.

Check your price

Listing for the right price can be very important to your listing. If you price your home out of the local market you can potentially cause a high DOM and make it harder to sell your home. The goal is to list your home for a price that reflects an accurate and realistic value of your home. A smart move is to list your home with a licensed agent who knows the local market.

Prep your home

Staging your home is a must. You want your home to look move-in ready for buyers. A staged home will appeal more to a buyer than a home that is not staged. It is very important this day in age because many buyers are viewing your home online. Small things you can do such as a fresh coat of paint or decluttering.

Remember listing your home with a Realtor can be a smart move. A local Realtor knows the current and local market so they can help you along the way.

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Existing Home Inventory Hits An All-Time Low

Realtor.com's December Housing Report shows that existing home inventory hit an all-time low. Existing home inventory has been low for a while but has been hit even harder since the pandemic. The December Housing Report reveals that homes for sale hit below 700,000 for the first time. This is a drop of 39.6% year over year with 449,000 fewer existing homes for sale than December 2019.

Newly listed homes have bounced back a little from the 8.7% decrease in November. December reported newly listed homes only being down 0.8% year over year. The country is seeing different improvements across the board. The Western and Northeastern regions are having the strongest improvements while the Midwest and South are lagging behind. The largest dip seen in new listings were in Nashville at -19.9%, Memphis at -18.5% and Charlotte at -16%.

As far as home prices, they continue on an upward trend into 2021. The report shows that the median listing price has increased 13.4 percent YoY to $340,000—though it’s just below the peak of $350,000. And within the nation’s 50 largest metros, prices increased by 8.8 percent—nearly the same as the month prior. The largest price gains were seen in Austin with a 20% increase, Riverside-San Bernardino with a 17.2% increase and New Orleans with a 16.8% increase.

“The shortage of homes for sale has been an ongoing issue for the last couple of years, but in December the combination of the holiday inventory slowdown and the pandemic buying trend caused it to dip to its lowest level in history,” said Realtor.com® Chief Economist Danielle Hale. “Looking forward, we could see new lows in the next couple of months as buyers remain relatively active, but a surge of new COVID cases may slow the number of sellers entering the market. Newly listed properties have shown mixed trends. While December’s data points to possible relief on the horizon, this figure has been impacted the most in areas with large COVID surges, and consistent improvement will be key in order to get out of this extreme shortage. We eventually expect to see improvements in the supply of homes for sale, especially in the second half of the year. Until then, finding a home will continue to be a top challenge for buyers across all price ranges.”

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Challenges With St. Tammany Zoning for Medline Distribution Center

 Medline had plans to build a medical equipment distribution company south of Covington. Many homeowners are up in arms about the prospect of such a project being in their community. Judge Reginald Badeaux of the 22nd Judicial District has thrown out the lawsuit filed by a group of residents.

January 12, 2021, the judge upheld the council's vote to rezone the property for the distribution center. The 70 acres between Interstate 12 and Ochsner Boulevard will be the first project of its kind in the area. Residents are concerned that the project will cause traffic and drainage issues. There is also concern that the project will need its own comprehensive zoning plan.

Many in the parish are hopeful that the original plan to build a 1-million-square-foot center in St. Tammany will still happen. Bruce Wainer of All State Financial Company owns the property and feels the judge made the right decision. He states the decision was "a matter of fact and a matter of law — I think the judge ruled correctly." St. Tammany Parish Council Chairman Mike Lorino is also in agreement with the judge's decision and feels the Parish Council did everything correctly in its handling of the rezoning and acted reasonably.

Not all leaders in the community are for the judges ruling. Nancy Wagner, president of the Flower Estates Civic Association is part of those who appeal the ruling. "We have said from the beginning when the council approved the...rezoning without following the law that we would continue to pursue all legal options," Wagner said in a text message. "We are disappointed that the ruling today mistakenly denies residents a full judicial review of our factual and legal arguments."

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Possible New Senior Center In Folsom

As Baby Boomers are now seniors, Council on Aging St. Tammany (COAST) believes there is a need for a new senior center in the village. COAST Executive Director Julie Agan and board member Bill Magee explain that the organization has several temporary locations that are not really working that they have been operating out of. COAST lost its permanent location six years ago.

The Folsom Board of Aldermen and Mayor Lance Willie opened a discussion with COAST at their latest meeting. During the meeting, both Agan and Magee proposed that COAST builds a permanent facility on village property. In return for its investment in the building, COAST would have primary use of it on weekdays for at least 30 years. The village would in turn own the building and the land and have use of it at other times when COAST is not using the facility.

The draft cooperative endeavor agreement between COAST and the Folsom Board, would be funded by COAST and possibly funded by the Northshore Community Foundation, the Northshore Homebuilders Association and the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office. Mayor Willie believes that the village-owned lot on Railroad Ave across from the first station would be the proposed location. The village attorney, Roy Burns, will work on a draft agreement between the village and COAST.

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Post Recession Recovery in New Home Sales

The National Association of Home Builders projected approximately 511,000 new homes would be sold during 2015, and the new home sales numbers surpassed that prediction by a small landslide bringing in 544,000 new home sales on a seasonally adjusted basis in December, 2015.  This was welcome news for home builders showing a recovery in new home sales numbers.  The increase was a 10.8% increase year-over-year, and this also heralded the best year for new home sales since 2007, just before the housing market crash.  In the South region specifically, new home sales were up 17.6% – the second highest percentage in the nation.
In addition to an increase in sales, new home inventory also increased during the month of December by 2.6% to 237,000 available homes for sale. 

However, the combination of the sales rate and the available inventory shows a trend in supply and demand that is on the rise.  The monthly supply of new home inventory fell from 5.5 months to 5.2 months with the building and selling of these new homes.
The prices of homes being sold are also encouraging.  First-time home buyers have yet to take a strong hold in the market, but second and third-time home buyers are making purchases of new homes in the $200’s – $400’s, which means that they are able to “move up” from their existing homes into their next home.  This also indicates the sale of existing homes for sale, which shows a well-rounded, moving real estate market.

Another positive trend that has emerged is the sale of pre-sold homes.  These are homes that builders are advertising before they ever break ground on the new construction.  The rendering and floorplan, as well as the lot layout may be all the new home buyer has to go on to sign a contract to buy the home, but with the reduction in available inventory, the increase in unused building permits and new home starts, the only explanation is that builders are able to sell their homes before they start building them.  This trend was prevalent during the early 2000’s and shows that the housing market seems to finally be on its way to a full recovery.

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2015 Real Estate Market Statistics

With the housing market being such an important part of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) keeps a constant eye on the real estate industry, taking specific measurements of all vital statistics that will keep industry professionals aware of housing trends either before or as they are happening.  There are many ways to measure the growth or shrinkage of housing by just looking at the numbers.  Some of the statistics that are measured monthly include housing permits, housing starts, housing contracts, pending sales, existing home sales, new home sales, and many more.

During the month of January, numbers were complied for housing statistics during the entire year of 2015.  The NAHB reported that housing permits and housing starts were up significantly for the year 2015, compared to 2014.  Year-over-year increases for housing permits were up 12% to 1.18 million permits.  Single-family home building permits were up by 7.9%.  Specifically, December, 2015, saw an increase of 1.8% in building permits compared to November, 2015.

For housing starts, the percentages were also significantly high for 2015 compared to 2014. Total single-family housing starts in 2015 rose 10.4% to 715,300.  At Bedico Creek Preserve, a masterplanned community in the Greater New Orleans area, the completion of 2 more neighborhoods during 2015 with developed lots ready to build has accounted for the significant increase in construction of new homes on our lots.  We have also seen a surge in lot sales to individual owners interested in building a new home on their lot.

With 16 new home builders from which to choose, our home buyers and lot buyers have a selection of styles, quality, and floorplans to begin building their dream home or you can buy a new home for sale that is ready to move in.  If you are interested in a new home community that takes you away from it all with a natural setting and wildlife habitat with quality new home construction, Visit Us at Bedico Creek and Choose Your Lot Today.  Contact Us at 985-845-420 or E-mail Info@LiveBedico.com.

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Builder Confidence in St. Tammany Parish

For 30 years, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Wells Fargo has been measuring builder confidence based on 3 factors of new home building – current new home sales, projected new home sales, & new home buyer traffic.  The survey is called the Housing Market Index (HMI), and builders nationwide are selected and surveyed by the NAHB each month.  The result is a gauge of how confident builders are in the housing market and the future of the housing market.  Post Recession, these numbers stayed low for many months, even years, but in the past 2.5 years, builder confidence has been up.

Nowhere is that more evident in our own backyard than at Bedico Creek Preserve, a master planned, Conservation Community in Madisonville, Louisiana, in St. Tammany Parish.  Builder confidence in St. Tammany Parish is definitely up in our community.  We have had a record high amount of 18 builders all building new homes in our subdivision at one time.  Currently, we have a list of 16 qualified and quality new home builders that offer lots to be built, as well as new homes for sale in the 9 available neighborhoods within our new home community in Southeast Louisiana.

Two of our Neighborhoods focus solely on the new homes built by exclusive builders that have purchased the lots in the neighborhoods to build established floorplans to maintain an inventory of new spec homes for sale.  These two neighborhoods are Cypress Crossing and Deer Park.  Other builders have individual Homes for Sale that are located throughout the other 7 Neighborhoods.
Builder confidence nationwide in January had a score of 60.  Any score above 50 is considered optimism from new home builders.  Broken down, the builder confidence rating scored as follows: current sales conditions rose two points to 67, projected sales conditions dropped three points to 63, and current buyer traffic came in at 44.  In St. Tammany Parish, the new homes at Bedico Creek have been selling as fast as builders have been framing them.  Many of our new homes for sale are available on our website for just weeks before they are under contract.  If you are interested in living at our new home subdivision, you may want to meet with one of our 16 builders to discuss purchasing a lot in your selected Neighborhood and then building a new home for you and your family.

Contact Us Today to Make an Appointment to View Our Lots at 985-845-4200 or E-mail Info@LiveBedico.com.

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