Reading the “tea leaves” about the Maine Real Estate Market recovery is like “watching paint dry.”
The real estate market is almost as fickle and unpredictable as the stock market. It’s cyclic, but trends tend to happen every four or five years to adjust for overvalued properties. Mortgage interest rates play a big part in decision to buyer for lower/middle income buyers, so the Federal Reserve interest rate is closely watched. Fortunately, the rates have stayed low for longer than most people expected.
Buyers are driven more these days by what the consider to be fair value and not emotional aberrations. Housing inventories in Maine continue to be excessive as empty nesters want to downsize. Many homes are over 100 years and expensive to heat in the winter. Consequently, there seem to always be more homes for sale so it’s not a balanced situation for both buyers and sellers. Currently, the average value of Maine homes is about 3% higher than last year. Homes on the water or with water views are always in demand at premium prices. The buyers of these properties are usually out-of-state often second home buyers who pay in cash. When I was a boy, the only people who wanted to live “on the water” were fishermen who needed to be close to their boats. All of that has sure changed!
For sale signs on the property used to contribute more than 35% to the motivation level of prospective buyers, but with the internet buyers surf online to make their short list of properties to preview with their Realtor. By the way, my website’s Home Page has a very complete search engine that many of my viewers use as a preferred alternative to Realtors.com, Zillow or Trulia. It’s better one-stop shopping!
Bottom line, for the moment… it’s a good time for buyers to buy and important that sellers don’t overprice their properties.
