Thanksgiving is once again behind us for another year, and the rest of the holiday season yet to come. As the buyers put down their turkey platters, they once again pick up their home search. Those who’ve actually found a home to buy are ecstatic. Those who haven’t are still feeling the frustration associated with lack of inventory. The good homes are getting snatched up fast. Competition and multiple offers still prevail.
And yet, somehow the sellers are still sitting on the sidelines. All this despite the fact that prices are finally up in places where they sat stagnant for years and years. Back in 2008 the real estate market began its crash, but the prices for New Jersey continued to decline for another four years. It wasn’t until 2012 that the statewide median price hit its bottom. And even then, there were some areas of the state that continued their struggle.
The hardest hit were the Southern counties and rural areas. The median price of a single family home in Hunterdon County in 2012 was $400,000. That price was exactly the same for all of 2019. Yet, by October 2020 the numbers jumped to $450,000. That is a whopping 11.1% gain in ten months!
Those gains for the same period were similar in Somerset County (11%), and Warren County (16.5%). Other counties like Morris and Middlesex fared better over the same time, with their 2012 to October 2020 appreciation being 14% and 26.5%, respectively.
Without getting too bogged down into the data, let me just say that for real estate, this is an extremely good thing. Yes, it was partly caused by the pandemic, so let’s take this as a silver lining to all the other craziness that has been happening.
The people who have the most to benefit from this are those in the rural towns that have been really struggling with appreciation up until now. People in those areas have felt trapped in their homes because they didn’t have enough equity in their home to move. Either they would have had to bring money to the closing table, or the proceeds from the sale wouldn’t yield enough for the down payment on their next home.
SO MANY PEOPLE don’t have to be stuck any longer! Due to the circumstances we are now in, they can now unlock the equity that they have by selling their home now. Take advantage of the current market and make that move into something larger, or whatever it is that they had a goal of doing.
Who knows? Maybe this is the year that you get a new home for the holidays!
