Amid a continuing glut of homes for sale in most of the country, Baby Boomers should have plenty of choices during the spring selling season. Sellers are expecting home buyers to take their time and be tough negotiators.
A quarterly survey of housing conditions in 28 major metropolitan areas by The Wall Street Journal showed that the inventory of unsold homes at the end of 2006 was up substantially in nearly all of the markets from the already plentiful level of a year earlier.
Home price trends vary greatly from one region to another and even within metro areas. For instance, housing demand remains weak in the Metro Detroit Area, sapped by auto-related job losses, while the chic urban zones of San Francisco and Manhattan generally have stayed firm. In Detroit, housing inventories are up 39% from a year earlier in a very weak employment outlook. Also, the percentage of Metro Detroit mortgage loans that are 30 days or more delinquent in the fourth quarter of 2006 is 3.94 percent, the highest in the country. Both of these factors are pushing single-family home prices down in Southeastern Michigan.
The glut in inventories is likely to increase in some markets as sellers try to take advantage of what they hope will be a stronger market selling season. Some sellers pulled their homes off the market late last year, intending to relist them in the spring.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, January 25, 2007