HOUSING STATISTICS / PENSACOLA , FL

With today’s high home prices and increasing interest rates, a significant number of buyers are close to being priced
out of the market. With declining prices and increasing inventory, buyers now have choices. With multiple offers a thing
of the past, in most cases, buyers will not pay more for a home than they should.

By Carl Medford “Home prices are very similar to the prices of stocks on the stock market: they fluctuate up and down as market
conditions change. The only price that matters for any given stock is the amount an investor is willing to pay on the day
you choose to sell, regardless of what you paid to purchase it or how high or low it has been in the past. Until a stock is
sold, it only has a ‘paper value’ which is meaningless until there is an actual sale. It is exactly the same in real estate:
homes around you may have sold for much higher prices a few months ago, but in the current market conditions, no one
is paying those prices anymore. Buyers are only willing to pay ‘today’ prices, not ‘yesterday’ prices. The bottom line in this new market is simple: While it was awesome to watch values soar in the previous overheated market, in the new reality, some of those gains will need to be given back to get a sale.”

And, if you really think about it, since the true value is only there the day you close escrow, sellers who refuse to set realistic list prices are suffering from a classic case of  take wishful thinking.