Courtesy NAR (2021)
"Metro areas with the largest percentage increase in median exisiting single-family home sales price in 2021 First Quarter from one year ago." —National Association of Realtors.
The hot, hot housing market in the region actually began to cool by Memorial Day, the president of the Southern Adirondack Realtor Association said. In fact, Mary Peyton said she sees the time from January through May as one market cycle that has ended and the summer has started a new one.
The low inventory of houses this winter and spring along with the influx of urbanites looking for a work-from-home paradise, has meant multiple bids from buyers, with bidding wars driving prices tens of thousands over the asking price, realtors have said.
The National Association of Realtors reported that the Glens Falls metropolitan area had one of the top ten highest jumps in single family home prices—27.5%— from the first quarter of 2021 over the first quarter of 2020.
"Once we were able to get back to work [last year], it never stopped,” said Kimberly Bullard of Legacy 9 Realty, but now: "It's a different temperature out there at the moment.”
July and August are traditionally a bit slower although this August still sees more people at open houses than in past years, Peyton said. She and others said it could be that the world opened up, and families could turn to vacations and other fun that distracted them from home buying.
However, realtors say there could be another possibility: buyers' fatigue.
"They're tired of competing with 10 or 15 offers," said Charles Goodridge, the head of the Goodridge Team at Keller Williams.
Even the agents who might encourage a buyer to bid on a house are growing weary of sending a bid in for a client only to lose. A house in Queensbury listed at $225,000 was bid up to $250,000 one realtor at a discussion of housing at SUNY Adirondack said. Others had similar stories.
Eden Whitaker, of Hunt Realty, said she has been working with buyers who are “busting their butt” trying to find a house.
“We just keepin missing out,” she said. “We’re sick of losing out.” Clients like hers and others have grown frustrated, realtors said.
Goodridge said he listed a house and reached out to agents with clients looking for similar properties. When the agents heard Goodridge already had one bid, they backed off.
“They don’t want to deal with a bidding war,” said Catherine McDonough, who has seen similar situations. This is especially the case with first-time home buyers, realtors said. McDonough, of Hunt Realty, said first time buyers were finding houses they liked and could afford and were beaten by six or seven other offers.
New buyers would rather wait in their apartments for the market to cool, one realty professional said.
Goodridge said he is seeing the change anecdotally in the market. Like Peyton who saw the market shift near Memorial Day, Goodridge said he is noticing that houses that once sold in a day are on the market for a few days or a week.
“It’s still a sellers' market,” because of the low inventory, he said. He and others said that resilient, motivated buyers are still out there driving the market. However, it’s taking a little longer to sell, Goodridge said, “only because buyers don't want to compete."
Kimberly Bullard of Legacy 9 Realty and Charles Goodridge of the Goodridge Team at Keller Williams are advertisers with FoothillsBusinessDaily.com.