How Low is the Housing Inventory? Pretty Bloody Low, That’s How Low

While making a training video on market reports for the agents this past week, I clicked on an old market report I wrote in November 2011 for Ossining. Among other things, I noted that there were 119 single family homes available for sale in the school district at that time. In working on current data, I had to blink and see if the current inventory number was accurate, because it is cartoonishly low.

12.

There are 12 active single family homes in the Ossining School district, and that is at a time when the spring market inventory should be trending up. This has affected prices significantly- in November 2011, the median price was roughly $380,000. Today? $504,000. That’s almost a 33% increase.

Contributing to the low inventory is the reticence of those in a position to sell because they don’t see a viable housing option currently listed. That’s scary. My advice for prospective sellers who aren’t sure where they’ll go if they sell: Look at your options- sell subject to finding suitable property, make sure you have a flexible, extendable closing date, and, if you can, buy before you sell.

Buyers need to have their act together- make sure you have a pre approval for the house you want to see Sunday, because it will be gone by Monday to someone who already learned that lesson the hard way. Buyers in the market need to be locked, loaded and ready to go. The competition for such a small amount of options has never been tighter.