Coming Up… Spring
March 7, 2022
Many mistaken the Summer Market as the busiest time of the year for housing, yet it is the Spring Market that is home to the most real estate activity year in and year out.
The Spring Market
More homes come on the market during the spring than any other time of the year and demand reaches a peak.
Demand is a bit muted compared to 3-year average prior to COVID (2017 to 2019), 2,422 pending sales, an extra 10% or 227 more. This is entirely due to a combination of an extremely anemic inventory, currently at record low levels, and fewer homes coming on the market so far this year. In fact, there have been 1,140 missing FOR-SALE signs during the first couple of months of 2022, 18% fewer than the 3-year average. With fewer available homes to purchase, demand has been muted. Nonetheless, demand readings have exceeded the inventory level since February of last year, indicative of an insanely Hot Seller’s Market. Prior to last year, the inventory has always been considerably higher than demand.
The issue this spring is that there will be a tremendous number of buyers competing against each other and clamoring to purchase every home that hits the market. While demand levels may be less than prior years, the real story is that the scarcity of homes available will result in just about every home that enters the fray obtaining a massive number of showings, multiple offers, sellers calling all the shots, and sales prices typically above their asking prices.
Coming up… SPRING. Orange County’s housing is about to ramp up considerably for the next several months.