Lack of Supply = Higher Prices?
Fellow Edina Realty agent (and blogger) Aaron Dickinson has a nice post shining a spotlight on a lightly heralded, not-so-overnight housing market development: the lack of Twin Cities homes for sale.
In fact, as Aaron notes, the number of homes on the market locally in October — just over 21,000 — is the lowest in 7(!) years, and down more than one-third from the 2007 peak (in supply, not prices).
The likeliest explanation?
It’s not that people don’t want to sell — they can’t.
“Underwater,” Defined
The reason, of course, is that millions of homeowners nationally — and tens of thousands locally — owe more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth (a predicament now widely known as “being underwater”).
To sell, such homeowners would have to show up at closing with a check.
Often times, a very big check.
Gee, if only someone out there had a creative solution (or two) to this problem . . . . (See, “Groupon for Underwater Homeowners” and “Solving the Housing Crisis – Take 2″).
