Fort Lauderdale Home Buyers Confused?

Feb. 21, 2013 - PRLog -- From what I hear and from what my agents are telling me, it appears that many home buyers these days are not aware of how our local market has changed in the Ft. Lauderdale area. Every day I hear about buyers that think they are in a buyers market. Not true. It has turned into a sellers market.  Many of our buyers are seeing that prices have already risen from fall of last year to present.
Broward County single family home inventory dropped 35.5% from December 2011 to December 2012! As of December 2012 there was only 3.7 months of inventory left compared to 6.3 months the prior year.  Read it folks, inventory low, demand high = higher prices, less negotiating power for buyers.

This market is more of a reason than ever to be working with an experienced, knowledgeable Realtor that is on top of things. A tech-savvy agent is key in this market, as a listing will pop up and if your agent has it all set up right he/she will be notified immediately so you can jump on it.  I just ran a quick report from our Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and 32% of the single family homes sold in Fort Lauderdale this year sold in 39 days! 21% sold in 26 days! So buyers, if it is not clear yet, this is not a buyer's market, it is a seller's market. Make your best offer and do not take your time playing around.

Some will argue that there is a backlog of foreclosures in Florida causing more inventory to be "flooding the market soon". According to ReatlyTrac's January foreclosure report, Florida had the highest total number of mortgages in the foreclosure process.  However, Fort Lauderdale is not in the top 10! Banks know that they cannot flood the market with inventory as it will only hurt them, so doubtful we will get a pile of foreclosures hitting the market ever.

A tip for FHA buyers: Approximately 44% of the single family sales in December of 2012 were to cash buyers. Cash is tough to compete with.  If you have to go FHA, do not try to low ball if the property is accurately priced (have your agent pull the comparable sales) or ask for concessions from the seller besides what is required by FHA. You must make your offer look the best it possibly can.  Of course every home sale situation is unique, so you can't apply this recipe to every situation.  Your agent should know what is best.

Sellers, if you've been on the fence, now is a good time to get an updated market value of your home. Call or email (mailto:%20info@wolferealestategroup.com) one of our agents for help: 954.839.8330. Search the Realtor database for listings in your area on our site now. http://wolferealestategroup.com/