Houses are scarce!!

[sharriel]

I have had to widen my area of where I want to live...spanning across 3 counties and 4 schools districts because there simply are no houses in my price range ($125K-$140K)

I'm so scared about settling because there aren't a wide variety to choose from.

Anyone else seeing not many houses available?

[natecooper75]

My wife and I are trying to avoid that same issue right now. Our preapproval will be finished soon and now that we are really about to buy a home as opposed to just shopping, we started to notice the inventory was much smaller than we thought. Our search seems like it is a little harder because we want one particular school district in a USDA qualifying area. We keep going back over our list of wants to see what we can actually live without.

We are looking in a very similar price range to what you are, but we are most likely going to expand that range if we get approved for more. Hopefully, we can negotiate some lower prices if we have to start looking at the higher priced properties.

[queen_britt2003]

I'm seeing the same thing here in Central Florida.  My realtor assured me that more house will come on the market as the school year winds down.

[BaileyMae]

Same here kinda. I'm looking at condos and nothing new is coming up. My price range is the same as yours. Luckily I'm in contract but if something falls through, it's back to square one. I'm on a time line as my lease ends 5/31. I was starting to look at houses before the condo I put an offer in for dropped it's price.

[Nik2010]

Same in southwestern PA.  Hardly anything...and the good ones that do come up last about a week before going into contingency.  Luckily, we found a good one the day it was listed, and we're closing in two weeks.

I do think that it'll pick up once spring comes around, though.  People don't like to move in the winter if they don't have to.

[JustJen]

Same thing here....there were only about 50-60 properties available a few weeks ago and that's not even 50-60 in our price range. So when properties come on the market they don't last long so you really have to move quickly!

I'm lucky our offer was accepted and we're scheduled to close at the end of the month...but God forbid if something happened where the deal fell through for any reason the chances of us finding another property at our price point in the area/school district we want before our lease is up is probably not good. So I'm praying for smooth sailing to closing!

[DanTheMan77]

Supply is always lower in the winter months. The upside is that most of the homes on the market in the winter have motivated sellers... no one chooses to sell in the winter unless they have to. Spring is prime listing time since most people try to time their moves during the summer when school is out.

[ezdriver]

I'm in the Jacksonville FL market. Inventory of resales is low and pickings of good value are slim. I am a rep for a national builder and I decided to buy new construction from my employer after a six-month search. I'm seeing more Realtors who are coming in to see me after becoming frustrated over the lack of resales offering good value. Base price range in my community is $229k to $300k [plus 10% to 15% of base in personalizations] and sizes range from 2000 sq ft to 3500 sq ft. We see sellers trying to price their homes for sale at new construction prices. lol

[fot1]

Part of it is as others have said is the time of year, other part is the market is rebounding and  the first home priced homes will be the first to really show that.