By now, the Nest Market Report for the first half of 2024 has hit mailboxes and inboxes far and wide, and for the first time in seemingly forever we’re seeing what might be considered a more “normal” market.
The sky, it doth not falleth. – Someone, probably, circa 2024.
Until last week, it had been a long time since I last wrote on this blog. December 2020, in fact. After several years of writing, life got in the way. And then the market that was in 2020 (and 2021, and 2022 …) happened. Things were a little crazy. Then just a few things happened in real estate this month, so why not dust off the blog and let’s do this again? We’ll see if anyone’s still sticking around.
“Change in all things is sweet” – Aristotle.
It’s December 14th, 2020 as I write this – the year that seemed to never end is almost, finally, over. Which begs the question – what’s real estate in the New River Valley going to look like in 2021?
I recently had a situation where the lender on my personal home sent a letter saying that our escrow account was short. Like, a lot short. It turns out the lender didn’t follow its normal method of contacting us, so we had no idea once our taxes were paid for 2020 that our escrow accounts were not going to have enough money remaining in it.
I have buyers buying their first home tomorrow, sight unseen. Oh sure, we’ve done a couple of Facetime “visits”, but tomorrow their walkthrough will be the first time they’ve physically set foot in the house. There’s really nothing more stressful than closing day for a sight unseen buyer, I don’t think.
One of the things that attracted me to Nest Realty oh so many years ago was their focus on good, accurate data. Zillow is a popular tool, but it can’t replace solid, real-world data based on live sales. And that’s where the New River Valley Mid-Year (and Annual) Market Report comes in. Every quarter (every month, really), we put together a look at what’s happening in the market, both the good AND the bad, and we just published our 2020 Mid-Year Market Report for the New River Valley real estate market.
When we list a home at Nest Realty, we have a list of questions we send our client to answer about what they love about the home, and the surrounding area. We call it the Seller Scoop, and it lets prospective buyers get a feel for the home that a listing description can’t necessarily share.
“How’s the market?”