Steel: funny you bring this up. I’m thinking about putting an offer on a house in SRB and that is one of my issues. When I walked to the deeded access, I was greeted by several obnoxious “ No Trespassing “ signs. Speaking of sign pollution! They made their houses look like a garage sale.
Another problem with a potential offer is I believe the prices are (should, anyway) softening with two recent rate increases, roughly 6 + month inventory and other factors. I’m thinking of waiting to see if sanity breaks out. Both attitude-wise and price-wise as the asking price for the home we’re looking at is high as the comps do not support it and the homeowner has his head in the sand. There’s many places to move to as an option.
Thanks and have a great day!
I would agree that the interest rates have to be considered. Others have addressed Walton County better than I could, and it can obviously be misleading to cite national data while discussing a local/unique market but I believe it's always worth being aware that when the rates finally go up after a being held down for quite some time, you may see an effect in buyer enthusiasm (and capacity) beyond the actual state of the housing market or economy in general. It's easier to read the market with fewer variables, and the likely but uncertain threat of rate increases can leave potential buyers feeling uneasy -frustrated they didn't buy a year ago, but uneasy about rushing to buy if the rates, or market, or economy in general, are already at a peak and about to come down. I believe the market (nationwide) is probably actually slowing a bit, as some recent data might be starting to suggest, but the economy still has displayed real growth, so in a world without the FED it may still be something of a wash at this point. But add in the disincentive of the interest rates, and I do believe that dampens the enthusiasm of many potential buyers -whether it should or not, I'll leave to each to decide...lol. Paying cash of course avoids that concern, but that is not how most people approach home-buying. If the cost of borrowing goes up, the cost of the homes must come down for the same buyer to afford them.
So that's a broad view, others have addressed Walton County better than I could. But we know economic issues tend to be intertwined, so I'd suggest that watching the next year's trends will be interesting, both locally and nationally.