GRAND RAPIDS — Adam Paarlberg, president and associate broker with Greenridge Realty, says this time of year is popular for home buyers or sellers as interest rates are still low.
“Those are going to continue to stay low and provide good purchasing power for buyers. and then for sellers to, we came into this time with low inventory. we think that that's going to persist. there are buyers for homes out there. and so it remains a good time for sellers to sell even as we see the average sale price rise during it through this time,” he said.
Like many realtors, Adam says his team has grown custom to providing no-contact showings to people looking to buy a home.
"Virtual tours virtual showings virtual open houses and then all of the technology that has gone into digital signing platforms. obviously, all helped us through this time it helped us to do business, even while we're in a stay at home order, and it'll continue to help us even as we adjust to the changes that are still on the horizon with the pandemic," Adam said.
According to the national association of realtors, there’s been a nearly 50 % increase in pending home sales, making it the largest month to month increase since 2001.
"Here in West Michigan what we attributed to is strong supply and demand that we had, coming into this time, demand was strong buyers were buying inventory was relatively low and i think we've seen those strong fundamentals carry us through the time of COVID, but also is all providing part of that boost, as we get back to activity. so we're seeing may's numbers very strong June's are tracking well also. and we're anticipating at this point that July will be on trend, even a little bit up from last year, along with August."
"So, as to long term forecasts. we're all in a time of uncertainty. so it's hard to predict too far up but i can say that we within the real estate community do have a strong confidence, even if not a certainty a strong confidence about the long term health of the real estate market, even during this time, we've seen people finding a renewed value and how they look at home. we've had to spend more time in our homes, we've had to utilize our homes and some new ways with home offices and work from home so i think that, on a long term trend. i speak confidently that the housing market in West Michigan in particular, should be strong for the foreseeable future," Adam said.
