For the last several years, it’s been a steady drumbeat of tough realities in the U.S. residential real estate sector as home sales kept dropping, market value of homes slid lower, foreclosures rose and banks seemed reluctant to grant mortgages. In the last couple of months, fresh data show this steady slide may be coming to an end, though perhaps more slowly in the Ozarks.
Nationally, home sales increased 4.3 percent to 4.57 million in January compared to December 2011. This represented a 0.7 percent increase from January 2011, when 4.54 million homes were sold, according to National Association of Realtors data.
Statewide, January home sales jumped 18.5 percent from the same month in 2011. According to Missouri Association of Realtors data, there were 3,165 homes sold in Missouri in January, compared to 2,670 in January 2011.
In the Ozarks, the numbers were down in January, according to the Greater Springfield Board of Realtors, but February data show reason for optimism. In GSBOR’s service area, comprising Greene, Christian and Webster counties, there were 282 homes sold in January, down nearly 15 percent from the 331 sold in January 2011, said Ava Snyder, president of GSBOR’s Multilist service and an agent at Murney Associates. February, however, showed marked improvement, with 371 homes sold, up 18 percent from the 314 sold in February 2011.
“We’re ahead of the game,” Snyder said.
While the latest numbers show improvement, there’s still plenty of ground to regain.
In 2011, GSBOR data showed 5,395 homes sold for the year, a 7 percent drop from units sold in 2010, and the 2011 total was down 37 percent from the number of homes sold in 2006, prior to the economic downturn.
Some Springfield Realtors report anecdotally that the market appears to be in a turnaround, with expectations of continued improvement.
“We’ve seen an enormous amount of energy in the market,” said Jack Rhoads, also an agent at Murney Associates. “It seems the public has now heard that interest rates are at an all-time low. There are great values in homes that are for sale.”
Interest on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was at 4.05 percent as of March 20, according to
BankRate.com.
Virginia Altis, an agent at Century 21 Integrity Group, agreed with Rhoads that home sales and buyer activity are up, along with confidence in the market.
Altis said some buyer reluctance for the past few years appeared to have a lot to do with the fact that homeowners didn’t want to take what they perceived as big losses when selling their current homes to buy others. But Altis and Rhoads said people appear to be adjusting to the idea that while their homes are worth less, so are everyone else’s. That fact, when coupled with the lower interest rates, means sellers can afford larger or more expensive homes with smaller payments.
“It’s taken us a while to adjust to that thought process – all of us, Realtors and the general public,” Altis said.
Snyder said for some buyers, conditions have created opportunity.
“If you want to make a move up in either price range or square footage, this is the perfect time to do it,” she said. “You may take a hit on the sale, but on the rebuy you’re leaps and bounds ahead of where you were five years ago.”
Rhoads said the public also is becoming aware that money is available for lending, and good programs – some that require as little as zero percent or half a percent down – are still out there.
That doesn’t mean everyone who wants to buy a home will be able to, and Rhoads noted that those who can’t secure mortgages probably shouldn’t have them.
“There’s not going to be programs anymore for buyers who aren’t qualified to buy a house. That’s what … put our economy in the situation it got in to begin with,” Rhoads said.
Another factor spurring buyers to action may be impatience.
“In all markets, pretty soon the public says, ‘Hey, I don’t care; I want to buy a house,’” said Rhoads, who’s been in real estate about 30 years.[[In-content Ad]]
