Hey Y’all! I am Jaime Huddleston and a local Realtor for 17 years in October, and Certified Residential Appraiser for 5 years. The real estate industry is in my blood and I am so honored to be featured as Sulphur Springs Real Estate Expert. 

Multiple offers seem to be the hot topic right now and you may be wondering why? Basic supply and demand, there are more buyers than properties available, thus increase in cost of homes. With the lowest interest rates we have ever seen, there are more people becoming homeowners than ever before and approximately 95% of local rental properties are occupied. Realtors need to prepare their buyers to pay more than listing price in some cases.  What happens if the property you are interested in buying doesn’t appraise out, or in other words, the asking price is more than the market value. What does this mean for you? It means the lender will loan you the amount of the appraised value. The buyer can either pay the difference between the loan amount and appraised value to the lender, the realtor can negotiate a lower price,  or maybe this just isn’t the property for you.

Real estate regularly goes through multi-year cycles of booms and bust periods. There is no sure way to pinpoint how many months or years a cycle will last.

There are four phases of the real estate cycle, knowing what real estate cycle we are in now can help educate you to make better informed decisions. The four cycles of real estate are recovery, expansion, hyper supply, and recession.  I will go over the cycles in more detail later, because that is another article for another time.

What all does this mean to you? I am personally concerned about housing affordability, which includes buying and renting. It only makes sense if investors are purchasing homes at much higher prices, rental prices are going up as well. The median sales price of an average home (sq ft between 1800-2600 on residential lots smaller than 0.50 acres) in Sulphur Springs in the previous 30 days was 211,300, the same exact criteria for this time last year, the median sales price was 179,975. 15% increase.

According to:

© 2021 National Association of REALTORS®. All Rights Reserved.

“Addressing Housing Affordability & Supply Needs”, https://realtorparty.realtor/state-local-issues/issues/housing-supply-shortage,

The following is in regards to the entire state of Texas:

Lack of housing inventory is considered the main reason that drives up home prices. Although new home construction has picked up, it is still not enough to accommodate the increased housing demand. In the last 6 years, home prices have increased 44%, while housing inventory has decreased by 13%.

It’s a sellers market right now. I would definitely take advantage while you can. If you are a buyer, be savvy, have your pre qualification letter from your lender available to your real estate agent. Just know sometimes you may have to change paint color, flooring, but that can be later in time. Anything can be a blank canvas, just think outside the box. 

I will dive in deeper with the four cycles of real estate in my next article, until then, happy buying and selling!

Jaime Huddleston Agent of the year hopkins county 2022