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Hope you read my blog on Wednesday. I provided some background on Black Friday. The day that now traditionally marks the official beginning of the holiday shopping season; when sales skyrocket and retailers go from red to black. Deck the halls and all that stuff.
Well, it looks as though shopping for a new home is also on the rise as existing home sales were at their highest annualized pace in October for almost a decade. That’s ten years! Could that signal an improving economy? Now that would be something to be thankful for.
According to the experts, that wasn’t supposed to happen. Just one more thing they got wrong.
According to NAR’s Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun, the strong October sales were spread throughout the country and the result of pent-up buyer demand because of a tight housing supply. In other words, there weren’t enough houses to go around. Nice Monday morning quarterbacking.
With a tightening labor market increasing wages and an improving economy, it appears some people may be ready to sell and others ready to buy. That’s the way it’s supposed to work.
At this point, the key is the housing supply available for sale. Inventory is still low but home equity is rising as values increase. This may prompt some homeowners to test the waters to move up putting their home on the market.
President-elect Trump could also help by quickly implementing new policies to encourage investors, who bought up the foreclosures and short sales to sell, by lowering the capital gains tax for homes sold by these investors to owner occupants. This would increase the number of homes available on the market, especially for first-time home buyers.
Hopefully, Black Friday won’t just signal the beginning of the holiday shopping season but also the beginning of the revival of the housing market, going into 2017. That will make for a Happy New Year!
