Video Transcript

Bonnie (00:05):

Hi!

Susie (00:06):

Hi.

Bonnie (00:07):

Good morning, Happy Friday.

Susie (00:09):

Happy Friday. So what are we talking about today, Bonnie?

Bonnie (00:12):

You know what we need to talk about the lack of inventory that we are seeing in specifically in South Orange and Maplewood, and we have some really fascinating numbers to share with you.

Susie (00:22):

Yeah. We’re a little bit of a broken record about this, and we know that you guys are hearing this from all over getting postcards, getting phone calls, et cetera, et cetera, but just to put a real fine point on the data. I pulled numbers from 2019 versus the same months this year. So 2019, because obviously that’s pre-COVID. It doesn’t make as much of a difference to like a 2020, but in Maplewood in April of 2019, there were 136 listings active listings. And that was already too few. And this year we had 86, so 136 versus 86. And in South orange, the numbers were even worse, 124 in April of 2019. And this year 56, so less than half.

Bonnie (01:10):

Right, so pause there for a second. What does that even mean in layman’s terms to a person who lives here, how does that, what does that mean?

Susie (01:21):

It is an incredible sellers market. We’ve been saying that for years in 2019, it was already a sellers market. So if you think about the fact that it was already a solid sellers market in 2019, before COVID many more droves of people came into the market to purchase, and there’s been very, very, very little to buy. And what has been the evidence of, of the fact that it’s a sellers market and extremely hot time to buy, is that or sell rather, is that the average list price in the same time in Maplewood in 2019, the average list price was $570,000. And this year was $683,000.

Bonnie (02:04):

Which is more than a hundred thousand dollars. So that is a huge increase. That could be a 20, 25% increase for some houses over the period of a year and a half that their homes have increased that much. So, and we know that there’s less than a month of inventory available for all the active buyers, which is pretty insane. That’s about as low as it’s ever been. So all that to say,

Susie (02:30):

Those are the average list price is for all active listings for that time period, just to make an even to punctuate the point, all of the sold listings during that period of time in April, 2019, the average sale price was 574,000. And in April, 2021, the average sale price in Maplewood was 731,000. So even more than a hundred thousand over for the sales. So it just really important to know that it could not be a better time for you to sell. We understand that it’s hard to buy something next, but there are many options that we can discuss with you

Bonnie (03:13):

And all that to say your home is probably worth more than you think, even though you may know what your neighbor’s home sold for things like that, we can run not only the comps of things that have sold, but we know what a lot of things are selling for that are currently under contract. That’s not public information. We get the inside scoop if you will. But reach out to us. You know, there’s no obligation just because we come over and give you a price opinion or talk to you about your house. There’s no obligation to sell right away, but we do think it’s good to be in the know about your current investment, what your home is worth, what you should be watching when you might be ready to sell, what kind of things you might want to consider doing to your house that you could enjoy now in the short-term before you sell eventually. We’ll be happy to meet with you.

Susie (04:02):

Right now is not going to be the right thing for everybody. We just want to give you the right data points so that you can make long-term financial decisions. So, you know, both Bonnie and I talk about, should we sell our houses right now? And it doesn’t make sense for our family plans in the immediate, but it may make sense for you. If you want to do certain things. Two, three, four years down the road, we had a set of clients who decided to cash out on their home, that they had only lived in for less than two years. They actually are living there just two years so they don’t have to pay the capital gains. But they decided to sell and rent for a short period of time because ultimately they want to go overseas. So if you have some sort of long-term plan in which it makes sense for you to make as much as possible on your sale, now then let’s have that conversation so that you can make good decisions.

Bonnie (04:52):

Yes. Okay. Well, everybody enjoy your weekend. It looks to be gorgeous weather for the next several days and sunshine.

Susie (05:01):

Yeah, lots of good things happening, more AAPI activities. So yeah, definitely get out there.

Bonnie (05:09):

All right…

Susie & Bonnie (05:11):

Bye!~