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North Andover, Andover, Methuen, Haverhill and Merrimack Valley MA Real Estate home sale and home buyer representation.
Working together on
your real estate goals.
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Ron Carpenito's
Prime Property Team
powered by:
Keller Williams Realty
168 North Main St
Andover, MA
Mon-Fri 9:30-5:00 EST
Sat-Sun By Appointment
617-797-8710 Mobile
978-269-5425 Office
978-327-5182 Fax
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Real Estate Update November 3rd, 2006
Well here we are heading into the beginning of the dreaded real estate cycle of winter and the holiday season. Everyone is wondering what's going to happen with real estate. "Will the value of my home drop?" "Will my home even sell?" And if your a buyer "Why should I buy now?" or "What kind of deal can I get" As with most things in life, there is no definitive answer so the best we can do is look at the facts at hand and make an educated decision. As of Nov3rd the amount of homes on the market (supply) in Essex County was stabilizing compared to this same time last year (up only 10%) that's the good news. The bad news is the amount of actual home sales (demand) continues to decline (down 28.5%) as compared to last year. These conditions will likely make for a soft winter season, but I am firm believer if its time for you to move, its time for you to move.
One positive that is mostly true during these upcoming winter months is an increase in buyer and seller motivation. As we know all home sales are merely the result of a motivated home seller and a motivated home buyer otherwise the sale would never take place. When you have buyers who are willing to look at homes in 3 ft of snow on a freezing winter day and sellers who are willing to keep their homes in show room condition during the messy winter and stressful holiday months, you've got motivated people and the makings of win-win sale. Granted there may be less overall participants, but it is always better to have fewer highly motivated people than many less motivated people to make a sale happen. So don't worry too much about the winter months, ultimately if your home is priced right, conditioned properly and exposed to the most amount of ready willing and able buyers a deal will happen.
By the time you read this, our new Governor will have already been chosen, I found it interesting that the candidates during this election season were talking a lot about lowering the assessed value on our homes to help with the ever rising property tax issue. I decided to investigate if this were even possible and how assessed values were calculated. I found out that city and town assessors use actual sales values from approximately 1.5 years ago. So for example your 2006 assessment is based on closed sales from Jan 2004 to Jan 2005. They take this data and plug it into a statistical model and come up with a value for your home based on the basic features like style, number of rooms, lot size, age, etc. The interesting part about this is, as we go into fiscal years 07, 08, and 09 we will be using sales data from 05, 06, and 07. Should home sale values continue to fall, the natural result will be lower assessed values without any help from the Governor. This may be the one election promise the politicians can actually keep without doing anything!
Ron Carpenito's Prime Property Team is a full service real estate team serving the Merrimack Valley and New England committed to changing lives one home at a time. Call today to discuss your specific situation and needs.
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