Timing can be “everything” in
many aspects of life. Anyone who started
a business just before the Great Depression of the 1930’s probably did not see
much success by no fault of his own. Timing
worked against him. A child born in the
United States during the Baby Boom of the late 1940’s through the early 1960’s
likely grew up at a time of prosperity and security. Most investors in the stock market buy on “the
dips” and sell into “the rallies”—which means they buy targeted stocks when
prices are heading down and sell as prices are shooting upward. To the extent that it can be controlled, the
timing of events, decisions and actions can have a huge impact on success or
failure. The same consideration
certainly applies to the purchase and sale of real property—whether the
property is the seller’s principal residence or an investment.
In the metropolitan Charlotte
area, the inventory of resale homes, townhouses and condominium units remains
low. Buyer interest remains high and
mortgage interest rates remain near historic lows. All of this, combined with a generally strong
national economy, has continued to drive market values of resale homes upward
significantly. In some cases, home
values have nearly doubled from their lows less than a decade ago, during the
Great Recession.
Will this steady and sometimes
dramatic increase in property values continue?
It shows no immediate signs of stalling, although it does appear to have
decelerated in the last six or eight months.
Some analysts suggest that housing values have risen too rapidly and created
a “bubble” that may burst in the near future, causing values to rapidly
fall. Of course, no one can predict the
future. I personally doubt the Charlotte
real estate market has entered a bubble.
But I do see some slowing of the rapid price appreciation seen in recent
years.
So is 2019 a good time to sell a
home or investment property in the Charlotte area? Just as some investors attempt to wring out
every dollar of potential profit by waiting for the stock market to peak before
selling, some sellers of real estate may be tempted to wait until values have
peaked—and the only way to know prices have peaked is by waiting for prices to
begin reversing and heading downward.
Selling into a market whose momentum is moving downward is a mistake
many investors make. So, to answer the
question, 2019 is probably a very good time to sell a home or investment
property. I have institutional investor
clients who have come to precisely that conclusion and are currently selling
properties they bought during the recession and rented for several years.
There is no way to predict when
the current Charlotte real estate market will peak. But current economic circumstances—low inventory…
buyer demand… low mortgage interest rates…have created an environment very
favorable to sellers. Timing can be
everything.
