Would-Be Sellers Fear Becoming Priced-Out Buyers

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2017

With a seller’s market in many places across the country, why are so many homeowners reluctant to sell? Nearly 80 percent of more than 1,000 homeowners recently surveyed say they believe now is a good time to sell a home, but many don’t plan to list their homes anytime soon.

Numerous would-be sellers say they’re holding off because of the high price they’d have to pay for their next home, according to ValueInsured’s latest quarterly Modern Homebuyer Survey.

Out of the homeowners who say they are interested in selling their home to upgrade or downsize, the survey found:

• 72 percent say they are concerned with timing the real estate market.
• 63 percent say now is a good time for them to sell, but not to buy, due to high home prices.
• 61 percent are “waiting until prices to buy are better to make a move.”

“Homeowners in many cases are eager to sell but don’t want to become buyers,” says Joe Melendez, CEO of ValueInsured. “These homeowners have experienced a lot of home value volatility and see more uncertainties looming—tax reform, for example. By hesitating, these homeowners are actually controlling the market on both sides. Reassuring these individuals is the key to unlocking inventory.”

Melendez says the survey discounts the notion that low refinance interest rates were keeping homeowners from selling. Only 18 percent of homeowners looking to sell say they haven’t done so because they don’t want to give up their current low mortgage payment.

Twenty-six percent of potential home sellers admit that they second-guess their desire to sell because they don’t want to pay broker fees, new mortgage closing costs, capital gains taxes, or other associated expenses that could possibly weaken their buying power for their next home, according to the survey.

Fifty-seven percent of all homeowners surveyed who say they are interested in selling and moving say it’s likely that they will eventually move from their current home within the next three years. However, some say they plan to rent out their home or pass it on to family instead of selling it.