It’s time to look back and see how home sales in Bergen County went and what we expect in 2013.
Comparing 2011 to 2012, home sales in Bergen County did better n 2012 with a strong improvement in demand. If you were a home buyer or a home seller 2012 was a good year for you.
More homes sold and interest rates were lower last year. Prices were flat with a statistically insignificant 1% difference in 2012. There were still areas where large numbers of distressed properties existed. Because of this, some Individual towns had softer pricing. As a result, there could be great variances among the individual towns regarding market performance. Prices were softer in towns with more distressed properties.
How long it took to get a house sold was nearly identical. It took 108.1 days in 2011 and 107.4 days in 2012. Demand was up tremendously and that’s the story of 2012.
There were 13% more single family homes sold in 2012 than in 2011 and that is big news. When you have fewer houses on the market (which we did in 2012) and you sell more of them, it’s easy to see that buyers are back in force. 13% more is a tremendous increase in consumer demand.
Buyers were helped by lower interest rates. The true cost of home ownership is your mortgage. Low rates opens up the housing market to many more people. They give other buyers more affordability or the option of buying more house. Because of this more buyers are out there which helps sellers.
This is why 2013 is being forecast as a strong year for Bergen County home sales as it is for the entire NYC metro area housing market. The recovery that began quietly in the 1st quarter of 2011 has been building ever since. As a result, 2013 is also forecast as a year in which price appreciation returns albeit at moderate levels.
Home sales in Bergen County have being doing better every year over the recent past. We look to 2013 to continue this trend. As a result, we see no reason to expect anything else in the future.
