Realtors: Mortgage Applicants Jump on Realistically Priced Homes

Sales are evening out across the housing market and are expected to hold steady through 2007, said Emerald Coast Association of Realtors CEO Barry Stafford.

The market’s biggest hurdles are property taxes and homeowner’s insurance, he said.

“2007 is going to be a fabulous year for Realtors,” ECAR President Harry Millsaps said. “We had a nice October and sales were up in November over last year. Things are really taking off for 2007.”

ECAR is working with the state to find a solution to the increases in homeowner’s insurance.

Fort Walton Beach Director Bob Hudgens said he’d heard of cases where Realtors had lost sales because the would-be buyer couldn’t afford homeowner’s insurance or the property taxes.

“It seems to hit first-time homeowners most,” he said.

Stafford said the Southeast has been fortunate in the past to have had insurance rates as low as they were. Growth in the area’s market has sustained an 8-12% increase in residential sales revenue from 2000 to 2007.

“We had to work to make sales overall,” Hudgens said. “This past year has been more of a reality check. People are beginning to see where they need to price their homes.

Sellers were spoiled when the market peaked in 2004 and 2005. Back then, a mortgage company was faced with non-stop applicants and demand. But times have changed.

Secretary/Treasurer Glenda Glover said it’s the Realtors’ duty to help sellers realize we’re in a stable market.

“2004 and 2005 were the aberration years,” Stafford said. “We had the most sales in history for this area in those years. Now, sales are right where they would have been had 2004 and 2005 never been so great.”

In other words: the market is simply balancing itself out. What is seen as drastically low home mortgage demand is nothing more than normalization.