Existing Home Sales Jump in July
I have Van Halen’s JUMP in my head today while reading the news that existing home sales in July rose 3.1 percent - an unexpected JUMP in what Wall Street anticipated.
Clearly my own market is not in an area where the housing market is in a complete state of chaos because business seems strong. On the flip side of that statement, however, we have fewer agents working in my office than we’ve had in the last five years. Five years ago, there were about 60 or 65 of us. Today we’re down to 41 agents. Of those, I haven’t seen 16 of them in over two months. Maybe it’s not my market improving so much as there are fewer agents around to share the buyers and sellers who are active in the world of real estate transactions.
The MSNBC article includes another caveat,
“… the number of unsold properties hit an all-time high, the latest indication that the worst housing market slump in decades is far from over.”
On a completely unrelated note, I attended an auction over the weekend in which two properties were sold. I was counted as a nosey-neighbor, lookie-loo attendee as I had no intention of bidding.
Before I go into more auction information, let me emphasize that I’m not a trained, licensed, or apprenticed auctioneer so what I’m about to say is just from the experiences I’ve had in real estate. I have been to two types of auctions: absolute auctions and auctions with a reserve. An absolute auction occurs when the item on the chopping block will sell to the highest bidder and there’s no turning back. If someone, for example, bid $100 for a house and they’re the highest bidder, then SOLD! I haven’t seen a house sell at an absolute auction, just stuff like lamps, couches, etc.
With a reserve, the seller “reserves” the right to say no to the highest bidder if the price comes in lower than they can part with something. The auctioneer this weekend said he never announces what type of auction it will be and that he’s prohibited from doing so by state law.
Here are a couple of pictures from the auction:
Though you can’t see them, we counted about 38 cars to be parked around the two homes. Because the auctioneer had two residences being offered by the same seller, they said the first highest bidder would get to select which house they wanted. And if they wanted both houses, they could have both by doubling the price. The first one went for considerably higher than the one shown in the picture because it has an inground swimming pool (with a lot of work needed since bullfrogs are the current tenants). The first buyer opted not to buy both, so the second auction was conducted.
I was sorely tempted to raise my hand once or twice when the house across the street from me was stagnating at $80,000 (2500′ish square feet, 3-car garage, 2.5 acres, needed carpet, paint, general updating to eventually sell for $180,000). My husband warned me, “Do NOT buy a house. NO.” so I managed to keep from JUMPing in. The house did eventually sell for approximately $123,000 (plus $20,000 for realtor fees, etc.). I’ll be anxious to see who the new neighbors are.
What the new homeowners may not realize is that they’ll be indoctrinated into Jack’s family. You see, Jack the neighborhood Jack Russell Terrier considers himself king of the ‘hood. Sometimes if something comes up missing, we’ll call Jack’s “real” family and ask, “Did a rollerblade show up at your house?” Then we walk over and collect it.
I think Jack is excited to see a rebirth in the housing market in our neighborhood (or he’s just friendly and likes people). I’m just as elated to be reading good news on the improving market across the country!
