Are you feeling frustrated? Does it seem that there are too few new apartments coming on the market for this time of year? Well, you are correct. As Urban Digs points, out:
April was the 7th consecutive month where we have seen fewer listings come to market compared with the same period exactly one year earlier. If it feels like there are less options to choose from on the market, your not day dreaming. That is truly the case.
So we thought we would venture some guesses as to why this is the case this year versus last year.
- Theory #1: Sellers are not feeling that the sky is falling as they did last year when the sense that they were sitting on a sinking asset led many to list before things got worse.
- Theory #2: Sellers who needed to move for life reasons (growing families, relocations, etc.) are still doing so. However more discretionary selling is diminished because sellers want to take advantage in their expected uptick in the market.
- Theory #3: The concept of “testing the market” is all but dead, as sellers realize that incorrectly priced properties won’t attract any traffic, let alone offers, and the inconvenience of listing and showing is not worth it.
- Theory #4: All of the above
Likely, it’s the combination of all of the above that are helping to manifest today’s new market reality, and leading to a dip in fresh listings coming to market. In the meantime, if you like a certain property, don’t count on a better one coming just around the corner, unless you’re willing to wait a while.
