Wow, it’s the Fourth of July already!

Will we see our sellers celebrate? Will we see our buyers celebrate? The answer – it depends. I’m not equivocating, it’s just that this market, as I’ve been preaching for months, is not uniform so a lot depends upon the location and price point of the home. For a majority of the Northern Virginia area, houses priced under $600,000 are selling quickly, unless they are condos. The ones priced above $600,000 are sitting on the market accumulating days on market, unless they are inside the beltway where they are having better luck selling. So now you have an idea which sellers will be celebrating and which ones won’t.

Also, if you are a buyer in the under $600,000 price point, you may potentially be in a bidding war and may need to put in an escalation clause to get the home. If not, you may miss out on a few homes because others are willing to pay more. So you might have to be content with celebrating our nations birth!  Oh darn.

If you are looking above $600,000 and the sellers have accumulated days on market and truly need to sell, you can often times get a bargain price on the home of your dreams. This is cause for celebration!  Each situation is going to be different so be sure to call me to learn more about what you may face in any of these scenarios.

The sales pace slowed down slightly in June and we expect this pace to continue through July and August, as it typically does. This being said, there are still over 900 houses a week selling in Northern Virginia. Interest rates are fantastic, so the buying environment is rich. One thing we are noticing is there are more loan programs available and credit is easing, so this could bring more buyers into the market. Let’s keep a close eye on the easing part as we don’t want to go back to the situation that happened in the early to mid 2000’s. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call me.

I hope you have a great 4th of July and celebrate in style!

It’s a good life and a great country!

Chris