SEATTLE RANKS NO. 2 IN THE TIGHTEST REAL ESTATE MARKET SINCE 2006
Realtor.com has ranked the top ten areas having the tightest real estate markets in the country, and Seattle is number two on that list. Not since 2006 has there been so few homes on the market, relative to the total number of homes in the area. The inventory of homes for sale almost never goes up in the autumn and winter, so things probably won’t improve over the coming months. Here is how the list stands today:
1) San Francisco Bay Area, CA (1 out of 332 homes for sale).
2) Seattle area, WA (1 out of 263).
3) Santa Rosa, CA (1 out of 247).
4) Vallejo/Fairfield, CA (1 out of 231),
5) Stockton/Lodi, CA (1 out of 180).
6) Denver area, CO (1 out of 177).
7) Greater Los Angeles, CA (1 out of 176).
8) Salinas, CA (1 out of 172).
9) San Diego area, CA (1 out of 172).
10) Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA (1 out of 170).
CYCLE OF HOME BUYERS FEELINGS TOWARD THE MARKET – 2004-2017
The feelings of the general home-buying population, those currently considering buying a home, follow a cyclical pattern over the years. We are getting close to “Euphoria” again, but this time, for very different reasons. Today it’s a result of a supply and demand situation with lots of willing buyers but very few homes in supply, coupled with continued low rates. The 2007-2011 meltdown was caused by an unsustainable lending environment where people were able to buy homes they could not afford. Those loans soon would put the borrowers “underwater”, leading to that national economic disaster, referred to now as the “meltdown” of the real estate and mortgage markets.