Hot Housing Market sparks Multiple Offers!!

Okay, yes the housing market is back. Yes, home sales are up, the Austin Board of REALTORS® reported May sales were up 25% over May 2011. Yes, there have been multiple offers on some homes in Austin. But wait; don’t slit your wrists just yet. You’ve been waiting for the housing market and the economy to recover and now that it has, have you missed the boat?

I say baloney. The housing market has a lot of ups and downs and has a long way to go to return to the boom years of 2006 or 2008 depending on what area you want to use as representative. Though mainstream media is so determined to report that the housing market is in an upswing that many first time buyers or buyers that have been credit deprived until now are saying what happened?

Well, many realtors were asking the same questions not only in Austin, but all over the country. What happened?,  We went from buyers’ market to sellers’ market in a few months? A few weeks?,  Well  yes depending on your budget and where you were looking there seemed to be multiple offers on a lot of houses.

Of course, after looking long and hard for the perfect house, you find it. Only to hear the dreaded words from your realtor, “there is another offer coming in!” Dum de dum dum…In that situation it seems like the only strategy is what? You guessed it. Throw money at the seller.

Well, sometimes that works and that is the knee jerk reaction so I went back in MLS and looked at some of the listings my clients offered on and were in multiple bids. Only about half of those transactions closed above offering, some closed at or near and some closed below the offering (obviously following an inspection).

So remember the old adage, “be careful what you wish for.” When you buy a home you become emotionally involved. It happens every time. Then you hear someone else wants your home more than you. Again, it is going to happen, but the best plan is to not get carried away. Housing inventories are extremely low right now.

However, markets always correct themselves. Look at the stock market, after recovering from the 2008 crash there have been good days and bad. The housing market is the same. You might miss buying one or two homes, but if you keep your budget and criteria in mind, you will preserver. Yeah, just what you wanted to hear. That buying a house is just hard work and clean living, well it pretty much is Adulthood 101.