Homeowners Should Have Some “Fear of Missing Out” on This Market

If you’ve been thinking about selling and hesitating or simply waiting, you may want to start thinking about how you’ll feel if you miss out on the best time to sell your house in a long time. You never know when (or if) conditions will be like this in the real estate market again.

It’s been a sellers’ market for quite some time now, and with rates going up significantly and home prices still historically high, there’s a lot of chatter about whether or not there’s a real estate “bubble” that’s about to pop. In particular, The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas recently warned about the potential of a housing bubble and how buyers’ “fear of missing out” (FOMO) is making it worse.

On the other hand, a recent survey revealed that home buyers are still hopeful and feel that it will still be a good time to buy a home in the next three months.

That’s despite the fact that even though there have been signs and reports about the market slowing, according to this Realtor Magazine article, as of March sellers have still been:

• Receiving an average of 5 offers on their home
• Selling for above list price over 57% of the time
• And 87% of listing sold in less than a month

Much of that may very well be fueled by buyers’ FOMO, but it can’t and won’t last forever. That’s how the real estate market works—it goes up, then it goes down, and then back up again in cycles. So even if you “miss out” on this moment in history, there will certainly be a time when home values are this high, or even higher.

But will there be such a combination of high values, low inventory, historically low rates, and high demand? And when will it happen? How will you feel if you “miss out” now?

Those are questions you need to ask yourself if you’ve been toying with the idea of selling your house.

The Takeaway:

Don’t be fueled by fear of missing out, but definitely think about how it would affect you if you did, because the market’s still in your favor…for now at least. If you’re going to sell in the next few years, now is as good a time as any to take advantage of the fact that buyers are still hopeful, offers are plentiful and over asking price, and homes are selling quickly.