National Association of Realtors® (NAR) Presents End of Year Buyer Report

It is always interesting to me to read this annual report from NAR as we compare their data with our own. Several interesting facts from NAR’s report was featured in our local newspaper, The Charlotte Observer today.

Here are a few tidbits from the survey:

Though over half of sellers reduce their home price while on the market, list to sales price ratio was at 95%–a heads up to those buyers who think that they can still buy a home at 90% of the list price!
40% of sellers offered incentives to sell their homes; incentives include home warranties and Closing costs.
90% of buyers are using the internet to find their homes.
96% of buyers aged 44 and under are using the internet to locate their homes.
Buyers typically tour 10 homes before making an Offer.
The percentage of married buyers is up, while single women buyers is down to 16% . Although Norwood of The Charlotte Observer states, “It’s tougher to buy on a single salary than it used to be,” our brokerage has seen an increase in single women buyers. Those women who are self-supporting seem to be making more annual salary than ever before.
Some sellers are insistent upon trying to sell their home without the assistant of a Realtor®–but, only 9% of home sellers are selling on their own. 33% of those sellers are selling to family members, friends or acquaintances.
However, if you’re thinking of selling on your own, consider this: Homes sold without an agent sold for $174,900 and those sellers who hired a Realtor® averaged $215,000, a significant difference even after considering the cost of commission. Certainly convincing facts to make you want to phone a Charlotte real estate agent to get your home sold AND for more money!

From the article…

National Association of Realtors’ latest Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers creates portrait of today’s real estate market.

The typical U.S. home buyer is 42 years old and married, with a median family income of $78,600. The typical home purchased is 1,900 square feet, with three bedrooms and two baths. It cost about $215,000.

How does that compare to your mental picture of today’s housing market?

Those are details gleaned from the National Association of Realtors’ latest Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. The 2012 report is based on a survey by the NAR’s research staff and covers the year that ended at midsummer.

A few tidbits buried in the report caught my eye: I was surprised that the typical buyers financed more than 90 percent of the purchase price, after all the recent news of tight credit. I thought single women might account for a larger share of the market.

See The Observer article on Scoop.it – Charlotte Real Estate
See on www.charlotteobserver.com