This week our listings saw an average 1.7 showings each as traffic remains consistent with the past several weeks.   As we head into another of summer’s holiday weeks, I expect showing activity to slow down for a short period of time.   However, the market still seems to be showing signs of improvement as many predicted it would in the second half of this year.

Here’s my assessment of the current situation:   The window of opportunity for buying opened wide earlier this spring, but in recent weeks it has slowly begun to close.   There are a number of reasons why I believe this theory.   First, interest rates bottomed out about 60-90 days ago when you could lock a 30 year mortgage in the low 4% range.   There’s no argument that rates like that are rare and make a good deal, great.   Unfortunately, rates are on the rise and it doesn’t look like they’ll be going back.   Second, home sales are starting to increase again and along with the sales comes a gain in seller confidence.   Confident sellers leads to fewer fire sales which were a great opportunity for buyers.   Both of these factors seemed to have bottomed around the same time.   Looking back over  a short period of time, I believe that those who bought made offers about two to three months ago  are most likely to be the big winners in this recesssion.

This does not mean that if you are still on the fence, you are too late to the party.   But it does mean that as rates continue upward along with seller confidence, so will those prices.   The window is closing, but it is likely to take  awhile.   Nonetheless, its still a buyers market and the time is right.