Rarely does a day go by that one of us doesn’t get asked if this is a good time to buy or sell a home. Some people might think that our response is always an emphatic “YES!” because we work in real estate. 但其实没有正确或错误的答案。 Everyone’s situation is unique, so in some cases the answer might be yes, but for others it might make more sense to wait.

The good news is that we’re finally coming out of the housing slump of the past five-plus years. 住房是美国经济的主要驱动因素，所以无论你是否拥有住房，强劲的住房市场对每个人都有好处。 对于一些想要卖房的人来说，这种积极的势头，加上房价的上涨和买家的活跃，足以迫使他们把房子上市。 现在，数字似乎站在了他们这一边。

According to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, there is currently a 1.2 months’ supply of homes in Seattle. “Months’ supply” basically means that if existing homes were to continue selling at the current rate, the inventory of homes would be sold by that many months. A “normal” market has about six months of supply; 因此，较低的数字悦博体育库存短缺。 If demand is greater than supply, this leads to a seller’s market, like we’ve seen in Seattle.

那么，这对买家和卖家悦博体育什么呢？ It means as long as inventory levels and interest rates are low, competition amongst buyers will remain high, and home prices should continue to steadily rise – albeit at a healthy rate, not like what we saw during the housing boom.

With these types of projections, one might wonder why there isn’t a flood of homes coming on the market. The biggest concern we hear from many would-be sellers is that they’re going to lose money because their home is worth less today than it was at the peak of the market. A valid concern, to be sure, but remember, you’re buying and selling in the same market conditions, so if your home has lost value in recent years, it is almost certain that the next home you buy has as well.

不用说，没有人想在市场底部卖出，但与此同时，每个人都想在底部买入。 Obviously these two scenarios can’t exist at the same time, but for those on the fence, we’re here to tell you that there are definitely opportunities to be had by both buyers and sellers that are worth considering.