Iowa Mortgage Activity, Home Sales Staging Late-Year Rally
Diane Dubansky Haase tells the Des Moines Register that she has a “slew of concerns” about selling her Beaverdale, Iowa, home in a slower housing market - among them lower prices and higher inventory.
“It would be a Christmas miracle if we got our asking price,” she told the newspaper, jokingly.
Will they? A new report released this week shows sellers have reason to worry, but also to cheer.
The Des Moines Realtors Association says the Des Moines metro market has about 800 more homes for sale than a year ago. Although sellers face more competition, sales last month were about even with a year ago, a record for most real estate agencies. Also, homes were on the market in November about a week less than a year ago.
Average home sale prices dipped slightly from a year ago - 1.3 percent - to $167,297, as the cost of Iowa mortgages remains close to its 2005 level.
“This is the most inventory we’ve had in a long time, but it also means it’s the best selection we’ve had in a long time,” said Don Godwin, a Re/Max real estate agent. “Instead of two or three homes in buyers’ price range, there’s about 10.”
R. Michael Knapp, CEO of Iowa Realty, said November’s statistics show Iowa home sales are beginning to “replicate the sales rhythm we saw in 2005.”
Helping were continued low mortgage rates.
“Interest rates were where they were a year ago, and so were sales,” he said.
Rates for 30-year fixed home mortgage loans averaged 6.12 percent last week, a little under last year’s 6.30 percent. Knapp said Iowa Realty’s sales will be less than 2005, but still healthy.
Anticipating a buyer’s market, Dubansky Haase said the couple’s renovated home is “priced to sell” at $169,900. They’re hoping to break even, given the relatively tight - and wintry - time frame they have for selling their home.
Cindy Waters and her brother hope patience pays with a home they’ve remodeled in Des Moines’ Waterbury neighborhood. The siblings decided to buy and renovate the 1935 brick home after giving their parents’ home on 55th Street similar treatment a year ago. It sold in eight days.
Waters feels confident they will get close to the $329,900 they’re asking.
“Maybe it’s foolish, but I believe if you have a wonderful house, at some point, someone will buy it. Of course, if I’m still in the same position in six months, I might feel differently.”
Their house has been on the market for two months.
Iowa Realty agent Chad Baker, 26, said he’s had luck selling homes in the $250,000-plus new-home market, which many said is stagnant, given the cost of home loans of that size.
Knapp, who leads Iowa Realty, said buyers will likely see new home choices shrink next year as builders cut back on new starts and supplies tighten. Some home builders estimate cutbacks of about 30 percent.
Dubansky Haase has been preparing to sell via home staging of sorts - decluttering, organizing and cleaning. She knows the drill, having struggled to sell a home once before - in Ames, Ia., about three years ago.