What Realtors Want You To Know About NJ Real Estate Market

The real estate market is constantly changing and if you are home hunting during the fall and winter, it is a little bit different than if you were looking during the spring and summer. While you can certainly purchase a home any time of the year, buyers might feel a little less pressure and stress during the cooler months for a number of reasons. This, of course, is good news to all the buyers who are currently searching for their next dream home! Read on to find out what realtors want you to know about the NJ real estate market during the fall and winter.

Autumn Slowdown

During the spring and summer, home sales are very robust and as we transition into the fall and winter, housing activity tends to slow down. The autumn slowdown usually happens as soon as the new school year starts because families with children would rather not move after they have settled into their academics. Also, this group generally makes up the largest pool of buyers and without them on the market, there's a reduction in buyer competition. Combine that with the upcoming holidays, then you also come across more people wanting to stay put. Nevertheless, what does this mean for buyers who are on the market now?

The good news:

• The median list price for homes has been on the decline since its peak in July according to Realtor.com and that, of course, favors buyers.

The bad news:

• Home inventory has also peaked for 2015 and buyers will see fewer choices on the real estate market through the end of the year.

While the bad news seems scary, buyers should realize there are still approximately 1,889,000 total listings in the United States, so chances are that you can still find perfect homes, condos and new townhomes in NJ!

Motivated Sellers

This next point goes hand-in-hand with the available inventory on the market – sellers may be more motivated to sell and that favors buyers tremendously. Buyers may have more wiggle room for negotiations since the seller will know this time of the year has a smaller buyer pool, thus making it more difficult for them. Keep this in mind when searching for homes because you may be the only interested buyer and that power can snag you a great deal.

Additionally, homes that are for sale around the holidays are from serious sellers. If they place a 'for sale' sign on their home, consider that a welcoming sign. The sellers are putting their holiday plans on hold during a time that's normally reserved for friends and family because they need to move for one reason or another. Take that as a consideration when they have their homes priced to sell because it can benefit you greatly.

Watch The Weather

New Jersey is one of the lucky states that experiences each season in the fullest and that can be a good thing for living here but not a good thing when buying a house during the slow season. For instance, if you are on the home hunt now, you'll want to tour open houses as soon as possible because there have been times where winter-like conditions have swept through the state well before the end of the fall season. That means snowfall could happen in the upcoming weeks, which makes it harder to inspect a home thoroughly. Snow can cover many defects, so try to find photos of the house before the white fluff covered it because this can help mitigate some risk.

Faster Turnaround

Lastly, buying a home during the fall and winter could produce faster turnaround services from lenders, inspectors and appraisers. Since we are in the autumn slowdown, there is less work, per se, for these services and that means you have the potential of getting into your new home a lot quicker. But don't expect to get lower interest rates on mortgages just because of the slow market; those rates have many variables that are not necessarily affected by season.

Home hunting can be an exciting process anytime of the year and now you know what to expect going further into the fall and winter months!