Here are a few things to know about this Thanksgiving market.
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As some of you may know, I was born in Argentina, and I immigrated to this country quite a long time ago. I love my birth country—I love the food, the culture, and being able to visit from time to time. However, I’m truly proud to be an American citizen. I’m proud of the fact that we stand on the shoulders of people who came before us to form a more perfect union. The Fourth of July and Thanksgiving are my two favorite holidays because they both give us time to stop and reflect on the blessings we receive in this nation and what we’re thankful for.
After Thanksgiving, I used to send an email called “Charleston’s Dirty Little Secret” out to all the buyers in my local market. The secret was that the best time to buy a home in Charleston was between December and February. During that time, sellers are much more serious, even desperate; some of them have to sell because they’ve been relocated for work, and others are looking to sell to take advantage of the year-end tax benefits. Many people were able to pick up some great deals during those three months.
"We might see a slightly lower number of transactions, but with higher prices."
However, in 2020, all that went out the window. I didn’t have time to send out the email because I was just so busy with listing homes, new construction, and working with our buyers. This year, I expect to see something similar. We might see a slightly lower number of transactions, but with higher prices. Inventory is just that low—the number of buyers vastly outweighs the number of sellers.
So what does this all mean? Well, the low inventory will keep driving prices higher and higher. Conversely, The Federal Reserve has been tapering quantitative easing, meaning that they’ve been buying bonds and artificially suppressing interest rates. They tried to taper in 2018 and 2019, and that sent interest rates into the high fours, which brought about a slowdown. I see the possibility of that happening again sometime next year, though I think that will be a transitory period before they work out the right level of tapering.
In the long term, I expect to see housing appreciation, so if you’re thinking of buying or selling, give me a call or send me an email. I’d love to give you my advice about how to find success in this market given your current situation.