Rental Property Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2014 · 139 posts · 140 votes
So I've been researching Texas, Florida, Virginia and some other states through Zillow to get an idea of the current market conditions. Is it just me or are there a ton of homes for sale?!?
Here in Eugene inventory was very low before Covid, and grown even tighter since. In July we had less than 1 month (.9) months of inventory in Lane County, which I believe is an historic low. Lane County is very large geographically and includes many small town and vast rural areas, as well as Eugene/Springfield metro area. In the metro area, the inventory is much lower than the country as a whole. We are seeing very short times on market, and multiple offers, sometimes driving prices 10s of thousands over asking, is becoming very much the norm. This is a most challenging market for buyers.
Your property search is stretched out rather far... Are you looking for a STR/AIRBNB? I can tell you that Florida is Hot right now and I do not mean the weather. Where in Florida have you searched?
We are in process of purchasing in OKC, its tight market there... houses go up for sale, and pending in just a few days. Had to get aggressive on 1 offer.
@Jason Wray im looking sfh & plexes. In Florida my focus was in Orlando, Jacksonville and Tampa in A or B+ neighborhoods but i am overwhelmed by the supply. I did notice that in some areas they get scooped up very quickly which is great. Maybe its just buyer/investor turnover with old ones leaving and newer ones coming in.
I'm in Canada, but my local market has a lot of homes for sale, and most are selling quickly. It is rare for multiple homes in my area to go up for sale, but we had at least 7 the last 2 months, all but one has sold.
@Michael Brattelli interesting. Could it be NY residents moving out of the city and into NJ? I recently heard an outrageous wealth tax that been had been proposed in NYC and CA.
I was talking to my realtor here in Oregon yesterday about a potential fix and flip house, she said there is only 1.2 months inventory in Portland Metro area. Pretty tight
Since Zillow is your source, just be aware that many of those may not actually be for sale. Nearly every home a buyer has ever asked me about from Zillow was not currently on the market, especially if it claimed to be a foreclosure or pre-forclosure. Homes that sold months ago often linger on their site.
Albuquerque area has an incredibly low inventory right now.
Here in Eugene inventory was very low before Covid, and grown even tighter since. In July we had less than 1 month (.9) months of inventory in Lane County, which I believe is an historic low. Lane County is very large geographically and includes many small town and vast rural areas, as well as Eugene/Springfield metro area. In the metro area, the inventory is much lower than the country as a whole. We are seeing very short times on market, and multiple offers, sometimes driving prices 10s of thousands over asking, is becoming very much the norm. This is a most challenging market for buyers.
@Jasmine Hieke We are seeing a lot of buyers/tenants from Philadelphia which is about 20-50 mins away from the areas I service. I think with everything going on people aren’t as attracted to cities and people want more space. Every house I’ve listed has sold within the first few days with multiple offers over asking.
Here in the Tampa Bay area inventories are running between 1.5 and 2 months, which is a strong sellers market. Sellers are getting 6+ offers on their properties listed under $250k. This could all change once foreclosure protections are lifted.
Philadelphia's market has been on fire! I wouldn't say there's a ton of homes for sale but the ones that do go on the market are selling very fast. In fact, in July houses sold at the quickest pace in history. Averaging 9 DOM!! If you are researching markets to potentially investing in I'd recommend looking into the Greater Philadelphia area.
Seller's market here and every where we've looked. I have no idea why, but RE investments are on fire. The National Assoc of Realtors said this is a delayed "peak buying time," which usually would be in the springtime and start to wane during the summer. Instead, it's hotter than ever. San Diego has limited inventory and multiple offers at all price points across the board. It tapers off a bit at the top end.
Tampa had a great July in terms of year on year prices and sales volumes, but inventory is ridiculously tight. It is the strongest sellers market I´ve seen in my 10+ years investing here. No matter what house type you have (old lady nice, gut job, new build) there is plenty of demand. Had 13 cash offers for a Port Richey 3 bed in need of a significant rehab within 3 days last week. Ditto renovated homes - lot of interest from qualified buyers offering full price. Feels surreal given the recession and unemployment.
I´m sure the pendulum will swing the other way, especially when foreclosures start again, but it could take quite a while for supply to exceed demand.
Here in Eastern PA (Philly and suburbs) inventory is still tight, but you can start to see more homes coming on the market at a faster rate than months prior. DOM is still low, pricing is either stable or increasing, and the amount of homes under contract still surpasses the amount of available inventory in many areas.
With the election uncertainties, lack of continued stimulus programs, the end of foreclosures and evictions moratorium, pent up sellers finally stepping off the fence to sell, and the future distress of more homeowners, the supply and demand pendulum will likely slowly start to swing the other way over time. But, it will take time, and will not happen in the immediate future in my opinion.
We are putting our house on the market in 2 weeks. We're in a subdivision of about 450 homes and there isn't a home listed for sale right now. As someone mentioned Zillow listings aren't necessary current.
@Jasmine H. As you can see from the vast majority of replies from informed Pro's in the market, the supply of housing has a consensus of "very tight / low inventory".
What I think your mentioning to is a point that those of us do not touch on much if ever that a very low inventory market is one inn which thousands of homes list and go under contract every day, tens of thousands. So if a person does not have the knowledge of absorption rates and/or given inventory levels I can see how viewing so many properties may seem as if it is a lot, truth is it is not.
Here in Twin Cities, we have one of the tightest markets in the country, record low inventory, and a person can lookup and find thousands of properties listing any given day. What you must keep in mind is the ratio, a thousand homes listing in an area of 4 million people is intensely slim pickings.
I have toured the DFW market area, I can tell you inventory could double and it would still be a solid seller market, I have never seen growth on that scale anywhere in the world in all my 27+yrs in the industry, it's beyond anything words can describe. What I saw of rest of Texas was various scales of the exact same, growth and development.
When researching markets be sure to look into the absorption rate and current inventories, that will tell you how competitive a market will be and give an idea of some time it will remain at those level short of WW III. Twin Cities we are looking at 7-10yrs before parity in housing (supply meets demand at industry accepted "normal" levels). I don't know DFW but I am willing to bet it's decades.
The places to watch for interesting numbers would be LA, NY.