Shortages of Homes For Sale in Lakewood Drives Quick Sales

You've always heard that the spring and mid-summer are the best times to sell a house - but Lakewood is currently facing a bit of a phenomenon. The number of houses for sale is at the lowest level in more than five years, and it is causing homes to move quick! The spring market may be a little early this year, and this could be great for potential home sellers.

The national pending home sales for December were published this morning, and showed a drop in sales, but it was cited this is due to there simply not being enough houses available. While most national real estate news stories don't apply to the Cleveland area, this one certainly does.

Behind the Numbers

Before we get into why this is great for you, it's helpful to see the raw numbers. As of the end of December, there were only 112 single family homes for sale in Lakewood. That may seem like a lot, but looking at years past, it's quite a drop.

Now you might be thinking, well that's great, but there are a lot of houses in Lakewood that are super cheap, or super expensive, and neither are like mine. If we take a look at the $100,000 - $200,000 price range, where most of the "standard" housing stock of Lakewood falls, we see even bigger differences.

That's right, there were only 50 houses in this price range for sale at the start of the year! As of the time of writing this article, there were 52 houses available, and another 10 contingent (contract was accepted, but not finalized yet).

What this means for you

This news comes with some pretty positive implications. If you've been considering selling your home, now may be the perfect time. It might be cold and snowy out, but there are buyers who want to buy, and they aren't finding what they are looking for! Buyers want to take advantage of the historically low interest rates, and don't want to wait. With most new houses being found on the internet, the weather doesn't play into the home buying market as much as it used to. 

If you're curious what your home might sell for, or have questions about the housing market, feel free to send me an email at colinmchale@howardhanna.com, and I would be more than happy to provide you with any information!

For more information, visit my website.

Disclosures: All reports are published January 2013, based on data available at the end of December 2012. All reports presented are based on data supplied by NEOHREX. Neither the Associations nor their MLSs guarantee or are in anyway responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by the Associations or their MLSs may not reflect all real estate activities in the market. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed