It has been a long time since the real estate market has seen such optimistic signs indicating a complete recovery is imminent. February home prices rose for the first time in nearly a year and a half, with the median price now standing at slightly over $170,000. According to RE/MAX National Housing Report, this represents a 1.1 percent increase, with sales of homes up nearly nine percent from 12 months ago. Due to these positive and sustaining numbers, real estate experts predict this year will be the first exceptionally strong season for home purchases and sales.
A substantial reduction in foreclosure activity has also helped perpetuate the real estate recovery. The number of homes for sale has steadily decreased for the past two years, indicating that people are feeling optimistic about economic conditions and purchasing houses as a result. Investors as well as homebuyers are attracted by extremely low mortgage rates and affordable home prices presently dominating the market.
Moreover, they are not waiting to take advantage of this remarkable opportunity and potentially miss this empirical growth in real estate selling and buying.
According to the CEO of RE/MAX, LLC Margaret Kelly “Information we are gathering indicates spring and summer of 2012 will be a very active and productive selling season. Home prices are turning around just as we have anticipated and sales are trending higher than expected”.
In fact, February home sales were almost nine percent higher than February sales in 2011. For the eighth straight month, rising sales have interested many people wanting to purchase a home but not feeling confidant about doing so. However, that indecisiveness has disappeared with all economic signs illustrating a vibrant return of the housing market.
Further substantiating the existence of a progressive economy is a recent survey showing that 50 U.S. metro areas experienced increases in home sales, with 25 of those areas seeing jumps as high as 40 percent. With the stabilization of the real estate market and the economy growing at an above average pace, the housing market in Bergen County, New Jersey is also sustaining positive indications as well, with an significant upswing in house sales and a reduction in prices.
With rent now higher than most mortgages and interest rates low, more people are looking to buy a home rather than rent. Even homebuilders are feeling confident enough to request more permits last month for single-family homes than previously requested in 2011. Experts predict almost 800,000 houses, apartments and condominiums will be built this year, 200,000 more than last year.
Existing Bergen County homes for sale are also projected to help promote the housing recovery due to an active market, reduced prices and the high quality of life in the county. According to New Jersey economic analyst Patrick O’Keefe working with J.H. Cohn in Roseland “2012 will definitely be a year of vast improvements in the housing industry, with the year looking much better for New Jersey than it did in 2009 or 2010”.