From Allison Ziefert Real Estate Group
I’ve been struggling to write this piece on real estate market statistics as I do each month. We are all under a tremendous amount of stress, and our daily lives, our country and, potentially, our health is being impacted in ways that we cannot predict. Providing you with the usual real estate market statistics without acknowledging the current state of affairs would seem tone deaf.
Despite the fluidity of absolutely everything, I’ve been seeing the silver lining in all of the disruption. Over the past week I have been extra grateful for small things– sunshine on a dog walk, a beautiful salad that my daughter made, people treating each other with more civility than usual.
As for a real time view into the real estate market….the wheels keep turning and the activity has been surprisingly strong. This past week my team has had buyer offers accepted, performed two home inspections for current buyers, consulted with new sellers and fielded multiple offers on a current listing, all while keeping our physical contact to a minimum and taking recommended precautions to protect our team and our clients.
We are confident in the fundamentals of what attracts people to our communities and these fundamentals will help us weather the storm. I believe that what we are experiencing will cause many of us to take stock of our lives– our jobs, our families, our financial priorities, where we live and the houses we live in and who we live with. Real estate may play a big part in that.
So don’t be held back from living where you want to live and the way you want to live if a move was in your plan. Interest rates continue to be very low, making home purchases ultra affordable. New Yorkers cooped up in small apartments with kids off of school may be spurred to buy. Families who live miles apart may choose to be closer together. People working from home may decide they need more home office space. Sellers may want to capitalize on that, particularly with the uncertainty of what a near future market will look like. The market we have now is known. The market 6 months from now is unknown and could be much less favorable if the fallout from this virus radiates through our economy.
Here are the latest real estate market sales and year over year data comparisons for February 2020 for Maplewood and South Orange.
Maplewood Sales Data:
South Orange Sales Data:
More detailed reports on the SOMA market and many other communities are available on our website: Allison Ziefert Real Estate Group’s Local Market Reports or contact me to receive them by monthly email.
No matter how volatile the stock market is or how temporarily limited our movements and interactions are — “home” is so important. And that’s why we do what we do. If you have questions about the market and want to talk confidentially, please reach out to me at allison@azhomesnj.com.
The Allison Ziefert Real Estate Group is a top producing real estate team based at Keller Williams MidTown Direct in Maplewood, NJ. We are local market experts, specializing in real estate and homes in Maplewood, South Orange, Millburn/Short Hills, Montclair, West Orange, NJ and the surrounding towns. We are driven by earning great testimonials and referral business from happy clients. You can read our testimonials at https://azhomesnj.com/testimonial/
