Nationwide, homeowners are staying in their homes longer before opting to move into new digs, but it is unclear whether the trend has hit the Capital Region.
Nationwide, homeowners are staying in their homes roughly 13 years, according to a Wall Street Journal report, five years longer than they did in 2010.
Experts say those homeowners staying put have helped cause the nationwide housing inventory to dwindle to its lowest level in decades. Adjusted for population, the inventory of homes for sale is now near the lowest level in 37 years of record-keeping, according to housing-data firm CoreLogic Inc.
Locally, some anecdotal evidence suggests homeowners are hanging on to their properties longer or are waiting until later in life to move up. Kyle Petersen, with Keller Williams, says he’s seen couples in their 60s and older relocating to larger homes rather than the typical downsizing.
“I’m seeing a lot of my age group’s parents moving into University Club or into a higher-end home,” Petersen says.
That said, he estimates most of his clients stay in a home for an average of seven years, five years less than the national average recently released by real-estate brokerage Redfin.
Another agent, Vicki Spurlock with Locations Realty Group, says she’s not seeing much activity outside of the starter home market.
“That move-up market is just staying put, they’re not moving up,” Spurlock says, adding she’s also seeing a lot of owners renovating and adding on to their homes.
She also has several clients waiting to list their homes on the market, but she’s advising them to wait until the new year, when she hopes the market will pick up.
In Baton Rouge, inventory and listings are continuing to climb alongside prices, while sales have seemingly stalled.
Read the full Wall Street Journal report.
