The Saint Paul Condo Blog

It has been a busy week!  After taking two days off over Memorial Day, there has been a lot for me to do around the office.  I have been showing condos all over downtown and in fact as soon as I wrap up this post, I am off to another showing.  So please accept my apologies for such a long time between posts.

Just an interesting observation about the current market conditions.

When you compare 2007 year-to-date stats with that of last year, there are two very interesting facts coming up.

First, There are more condos for sale this year (247 compared to 223)

Second, there are less sales (78 compared to 109)

What does this all mean?

Depends.  If you are a buyer, it's primarily good news.  More condos to choose from and you have better negotiating power than ever before.  The down side is a longer time before you can expect to be in an equitable situation with the property you buy (My gut tells me 5+ years).

If you are a seller, it's not the news you want to hear.  If your house is on the market now, or if you are planning to sell it, you need to have everything in perfect, near model condition.  The key is taking away all of the potential buyers' objections.  Meaning if you have dated appliances or cabinets and your budget permits, you should replace them.  Pricing and staging are two important factors as well.

I'll write more tonight about what Sellers can do in a "Buyers Market"