I just came from the office where I find out that two of my colleagues have just put their homes up for sale. They both want to move up to larger, more updated homes and feel that this is the best market in which to do it. They waited out the boom years for prices to come down. Now, they’re ready to pounce on some bargains.
A friend of mine facebooked me to tell me he heard his house is back on the market. I checked it out and indeed it is. We had sold his home in 2007 for $375,000 at full price. Now it is on the market for $279,000. It had been appraised for $425,000 in 2005. Wow, that is quite a turn around in pricing.
The above example is more of the exception than the rule. You need to be realistic. Million dollar homes are not selling for $400,000. The Barrington-Inverness-Palatine area has not taken the pricing hit that the West Coast and East Coast has.
However, we are seeing pre-boom pricing of 2003-2004 levels. And, deep discounts are out there. Savvy buyers with a little patience to look around will find themselves richly rewarded.
