Remember that inventory shortage we've been reporting on?  Well it's only getting worse!

Hi everybody,  It’s Joe Hillner with Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty, where we guarantee the sale of your home, or I’LL buy it! 
Ok, so every week, I share market data to keep you informed with the local real estate market.  

Here is this week’s Boca Market Watch.

First, Single Family Homes:

This past week, a  decent week with 54 new homes on the market, ranging from $204,000 to a couple of homes priced at $6.8 Million. Only 33 homes back on the market, while 23 homes listed took a price decrease, and 6 sellers raised their asking price.  45 different properties went under contract, and 40 went pending, another light week. 
And only 12 homes were unsuccessful in selling and were taken off the market or the listing expired outright, virtually nothing!   80 homes were sold in the past week, not too bad, and those home sales ranged from $299K to $12M!

Next up, Condos and Townhomes:

Only 59 new listings, very low, and ranging from $50 Grand to $4.75 Million.  
29 units came back on the market, 20 properties with a price decrease, and 6 sellers with an increase, in total, not very many.  53 different properties went under contract, and 61 went pending, a decent week. And like single family homes, only 17 condos or townhomes were unsuccessful in selling and were taken off the market or the listing expired, extremely few!  102 closed sales this week, another good week, and ranging in price from $64 Grand to $4.5 M!

Here's what's making news right now.

I've been reporting for a while now on the critical lack of inventory that is fueling the massive spike in prices that we've seen recently.  Well, it's only getting worse.  The Nat'l Assn of Realtors is reporting that the supply of homes for sale has reached the lowest level since they've been keeping records, nearly 40 years!  In 2007 and 2008, after the market collapsed, there were nearly 3.5 million homes for sale nationally.  We're now down to about 900,000 units, or down 74% from the peak. In Boca, we are down to only 5 weeks of supply.  If you consider that a normal market has 22-24 weeks of inventory, we need 4 to 5 TIMES as many homes on the market, right now, just to get the market back in balance.

And it's getting worse.  The number of new home construction starts is essentially the same as it was two decades ago.  But in that time span, 12 million new households have been formed, which adds only more fuel to the demand for housing.  Why aren't the builders doing more to meet this demand you might ask.  As I've told you before, lumber and sheet rock prices have tripled, and the construction industry lost about a million workers in that market collapse, most of whom have not returned.  

And now builders are facing an appliance shortage, that's right, they can't get appliances.  The Nat'l Assn of Home Builders just surveyed their members, and 95% of the builders reported that the #1 shortage they are dealing with is the lack of appliances.  Why is that?  Quite simple.  You may be aware that it's hard to buy a new car right now because the manufacturers can't get the computer chips they need for the cars.  Similarly, the appliance manufacturers can't get the computer chips they need to produce appliances.  In both cases, the problem was caused by a disruption in the supply chain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

So what does all that mean?  Well for the client I spoke with today who told me that she intends to wait until the market cools down and she can get a better deal, that could be a very long and ultimately unsuccessful strategy.

You might be interested to know that one of the things we excel at is removing the risk associated with buying or selling a home.  For example, we offer our VIP Buyers a powerful Satisfaction Guarantee.  If you don't still love the home you buy after 18 months, we'll sell it for free, meaning no commission to us. And if we can't, I'll make an offer to buy it back!  And it's all in writing, no gimmicks.  If you'd like more details on this program, just reach out to us by phone or DM at 561-609-0657.