We've got some exciting things happening out there. Speculation of course, is all across the board. What's going to happen long term in the economy? But what we deal with here each and every day is the facts and figures that are in front of us.

So we want to give you some information about what we're seeing here locally. Last month (March) we had the third highest month in terms of pending sales in our MLS over the last 12 months. There were 273 properties that went under contract during the month.

I was sitting with buyers recently who said: "Geoff, based on everything that we're reading in the news, what should we do? We're kind of thinking of holding off."

I simply went to the numbers and said:"That's certainly an option that you can explore, but let me ask you a question. What specifically causes you to believe that you want to hold off on making a purchase?

And they said: "Well, you know, we're reading this stuff in the news."

I replied: "Well, let me ask you this. If you think that the tariffs and that sort of thing might hurt the economy, what do you think is going to happen to the price of a replacement new home? I read an article recently that the price of new housing will go up on average across the US by about $10,000. Would you agree with that statement?

The buyers said: "Well I guess we never thought about it that way. Yes. Could make new housing less affordable."

I responded: "So if it makes new houses less affordable, is there going to be less downward pressure on resale homes? Because if resale homes are not competing with new homes, then does it stand to reason that those values might not come down as well?"

They said: "We never thought about it that way."

And I said: "Here's the really good news. Can I share it with you?" And they said, sure.

"We just saw a six month low in terms of interest rates. So interest rates earlier this week were as low as 6.6%. If you're looking at FHA or VA finance loans, our buyers are currently locking some of those in the high fives."

So here's the really good news for buyers. There's 27% more inventory available in the market in the Greater Prescott area than there was 12 months ago. You've got a six month low interest rate, which is also great.

So there are lots of options to look at and low interest rates. And here's the thing. Buyers are responding to that, as seen by the third highest level of pending sales in the last 12 months.

So if you're a buyer, you're renting a property, you're wondering if you should wait or if you should hang on, I would consider all of those factors before you make that final decision or give us a call. We're happy to talk through it with you as well.

Also of note is inventory and sellers should pay attention to this one.

I was with some sellers yesterday. Their listing had expired. They'd been with two different agents, and they said: "We don't understand. We're watching everything, and it doesn't look like the values are falling. In fact, a lot of people are telling us that the the values are continuing to rise."

That's true. But what we discovered through our consultation is that the price that they were at with both of the last two agents was not realistic, even though the market's going up.

If your home is sitting on the market and it hasn't sold, it doesn't mean the market is disintegrating. It means that maybe you're still not at the price that it needs to be for the buyers to respond to it.

So let's take a look at that inventory now sitting at 965 properties. Those are site-built single family homes. This is the time of year where the inventory typically starts to drastically rise. When we look back at this time last year, only 689 homes existed on the marketplace, Today we have 965.

If that inventory continues to rise and you're a seller, remember, would you rather be competing against more homes on the market or less? Most of us obviously would say less. About half of the available inventory of homes are in Prescott.

Days on market did come down a little bit again last month, another signal that buyers are coming out of the woodwork. They're starting to purchase homes. They're liking the interest rates. They like the fact that there's more options to choose from.

Remember that our market is not faltering. The values are not coming down. Last month, the overall market increased by a little over 1.5%.

When you look at the active inventory again, these are the homes that did not sell, those 965 properties on the market. They continue to languish on the market. They've been on the market for 120 days. And when you look at the overall price that they're asking, they are priced 14.5% over the average market value where homes are actually selling.

So if you're on the market, you're struggling to get the property sold, you probably need to take a pretty strong look at pricing. It doesn't mean the market is faltering, but maybe you started at a price that was slightly too high to attract the buyers to your home.

If you have any more questions, I'm always happy to take your call.

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