With the start of 2013, I was hoping more sellers would be coming forward to list their homes. After all, prices are moving upwards. Most people don't realize, we have seen prices in Fresno county increase by about 8% from a year ago. The problem we have right now is low active inventory. I ran my "market barometer" search today, and found that their are only 798 active listings of single family homes, condo's and PUD's in the Fresno/Clovis area. Now of those 798, there are 112 "short sales" and 107 "Bank Owned" listings. That leaves a mere 579 "traditional" home sellers in the local Fresno marketplace.
This has put the inventory at less than a 1 1/2 months supply of homes. I've witnessed a steady decline in active inventory over the last 3 years. With approx 600 homes being sold per month, and slightly less than that being new listings, we have a declining active inventory.
The good news is that there is less foreclosure filings, and more traditional sellers coming forward to sell their homes. Everyone likes a traditional seller, because they are much easier to work with. The traditional seller will answer your offer in a few days, as opposed to the longer period experienced when working with banks and short sale lenders.
If you are thinking about selling, now is the time to get a good price and sell quickly. Clean, well priced homes are getting multiple offers in a short period of time, usually a few days or weeks, but not months.
