SEATTLE–Sellers are confident that they hold the keys in the current home sales market, and that this is a very good time to sell.
A new Redfin Survey of home sellers conducted this month, 52% think now is a good time to sell in their neighborhood (up from 34% last year) and 58% think sellers have more power than buyers (up from 44% in 2015). The Redfin findings mark the second consecutive quarter in which the majority of sellers think now is a good time to sell and nearly the highest level of seller confidence we’ve recorded.
According to Redfin, the current U.S. housing market has just 2.8 months of housing supply, the lowest level the company has found since it began recording the data in 2009. Redfin said six months of inventory is considered to be balanced, with lower figures favoring sellers.
Of course, in most cases someone selling a home also makes them a buyer, but Redfin said it found seller concerns about finding another home have declined compared to last quarter. Nevertheless, finding a home to buy remains at the top of sellers’ list of worries, with 30% identifying that issue. The good news is that overall concern about finding a desirable and affordable replacement home has declined seven percentage points from one quarter earlier.
Wanting a larger or nicer home topped the list of reasons people are looking to sell at 40%, up from 29% last year, Redfin said. Selling in order to move to a better school district increased to 15%, up from 7% last year.