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Should I Buy Now? Has the Vero Beach Real Estate Market Bottomed Out?
By the time
there is a general consensus that the Vero Beach Real Estate market has bottomed and is on it’s way to recovery, the best
deals will be gone. Interest rates are now at historic lows, and prices are down 30-40%
compared to the highs of 2005.
Using last
months sales data and looking for a continuing trend puts you several months behind the
current state of the market. Only by digging deeper into all of the sales parameters can you
get an idea of where the market is heading.
Sales are up
15% for February compared to this time last year in Indian River County with 40 out of 114
sales being foreclosures or short sales. The longer time frame from offer to closing of
these distressed properties distorts evidence of the increase buyer activity that is now
evident.
Short Sales
and Foreclosures closing now, are the result of offers submitted many weeks or possibly
months before non-distressed sales. This can produce a “lag time” for the recorded sales
distorting the true increase in buyer activity.
A more current
view of the market activity is the number of listings that are “pending” – closing soon, and
“contingent” – listings under contract but subject to financing or other conditions.
Currently there are 59 pending listings and 224 contingent listings. Although some may not
close with the first offer, that’s a lot of homes “in the pipeline”.
Although it is
just my personal experience – I have put more homes under contract in the last 6 weeks than
the previous 6 months combined. All evidence points to this trend continuing, since there is
a large inventory of homes for sale.
I have been
urging clients who are actively looking to pre-qualify with a lender.
Virtually all
listings that are foreclosures or “short sales” require either proof of funds or a
pre-qualifying letter to submit an offer.
Please let me
know if I can assist you with further research on any emailed listings or set up a showing
for any home.
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