Are you looking to put your home on the market this Spring? Get the latest news on what other home-sellers are saying so you can learn what to expect. This recent Redfin article by Jeffrey Marino explains how home-seller confidence is strong this season.
The strong March housing market was followed by a significant boost in home-seller confidence this April.
In its latest Home-Seller Sentiment Survey, Redfin surveyed nearly 900 homeowners, about 20 percent of whom either said their home was currently listed for sale or expressed plans to sell within the next year, and are therefore considered “home sellers” for the purpose of this report.
Among those 179 home sellers, one in four said they had no concerns when asked what their top three concerns were regarding selling their home, ironically causing “no concerns” to rank in the top spot on the list.
This is a nine-point jump in confidence from when we last surveyed home sellers three months ago. In January, 16 percent of sellers selected the option “none,” and this response ranked in the eighth spot on the list of concerns.
There was also a decline in the percentage of sellers expressing concerns about finding a replacement home, dropping from the third spot in January when 24.1 percent of sellers expressed this concern to fifth place in April when 18 percent had this response.
“Despite strong sentiment among current home sellers, the numbers show prospective sellers have been very slow to list their homes. New listings dropped 2.3 percent in the first three months of the year compared to the same period last year,” said Redfin chief economist Nela Richardson. “Would-be sellers are likely waiting for prices to peak; they’re trying to time the market to fetch the largest possible gain. Whether the confidence of the current cohort of sellers translates into more new listings in the coming months is the number one question that determines whether 2017 will be a good year or a great year.”
The fact that home sellers were emboldened in April is also reflected in a slight shift toward a more aggressive pricing strategy. The share of sellers reporting they would price high because they believe negotiation in inevitable increased almost six percentage points from 15.4 percent in January to 21.1 percent in April.
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