The real estate market in Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte has a seasonal swing of inventory and the number of people looking at homes and land depending on the time of year. As one would expect the months of January to April are when the most people are in Florida and of course, our area. There are plenty of seasonal residents that escape the northern winters in exchange for pleasant sub-tropical weather with sunny skies.
Frequently, home buyers ask me if the summer months are the best time to buy since there are not that many people looking and home sellers are more motivated. The reality is that there is no quick answer without explanation. First, the winter months see a lot more people looking at properties and the sellers corresponding like to “time the market” by placing their homes on the market starting around December. The sellers often bump their prices up hoping the influx of seasonal buyers will be willing to pay more for a house. Then, the real world sets in and systematically I see many homes continue to drop their price over the winter season until they get offers. Essentially, there are more people shopping for houses and there are more houses to chose from.
The true summer season here is from June through October. Actually, there are still plenty of home buyers and not near as many “tire kickers”. The summer home buyers that arrive to town generally are more serious about buying. There are normally less homes to chose from in the summer. So, conversely to the winter months there are less home buyers and less homes to chose from. At the end of the day, I do occasionally see perhaps a few better deals made in the summer but in general people that have their homes listed know it is a sellers market and they don’t jump off a cliff in price because its the summer months. What sometimes happens is that home sellers may have been on the market since last December and after 8-10 months on the market they are more serious about getting the house sold and make significant price reductions or take more off the asking price.
How much can you expect people to negotiate when making a purchase? I will cover this in the next blog which goes hand in hand with this discussion.
I will also cover how to negotiate the best deal.
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