Spotted this one over at Ben Jones’ wonderful Housing Bubble Blog:
Question: I’m remodeling a rental home that I plan to sell, but I’m worried that the housing market might go bust before I finish the renovations. Someone suggested I put it on the market before it’s finished, but I’m not sure this is a good idea. What do you think?
– Arlene Sund, Seattle, Washington
Answer: I don’t think there’s any doubt that housing prices have begun to cool down after their torrid run of the past five years. Recent stats from the National Association of Realtors show that the median price for a single-family home in the U.S. fell about 3 percent between the end of last year and the first quarter of this year.
That doesn’t mean prices have fallen everywhere. Indeed, they’re still rising in many parts of the country, even if not quite as robustly as they were before.
And what really matters is what’s going on in your area. So you’ll not only want to check out price trends in your city, which you can do by clicking here, but your neighborhood as well, in which case talking to local realtors is probably your best bet.
Aside from getting info about whether selling prices have been trending up or down, you’ll want to ask local agents whether the inventory of unsold homes increasing, the number of weeks listings spend on the market before selling is on the rise and whether sellers are having to make price cuts and other concessions to sell.
So, according to this “expert,” the best possible resource out there to gauge the direction of your local market is the National Association of Realtors? I find that advice to be questionable at best. I think Arlene would get a much more complete picture if she were to consult… oh, I don’t know… maybe this blog? Sure, I’m biased, but I post on all the local market news, I don’t just cherry-pick data that supports my bottom line (maybe because I don’t have one).
(Walter Updegrave, CNNMoney.com, 06.02.2006)