Luxury Oceanfront Buyers are out Buying Earlier than Expected

January 21, 2013

Last year we saw the beginning of the housing market recovery with the sale of many luxury oceanfront properties from Miami Beach to Palm Beach. This year we are seeing buyers out earlier than usual searching real estate listings online and then going out and making purchases.

“I’m seeing twice as many buyers this January as last January,” Joe Petrowsky, president of Right Trac Financing Group, a mortgage company near Hartford, Conn. said in an interview. “People have finally figured out that prices are moving up, interest rates are really low, and they don’t want to miss out on the opportunity.”

A recent survey of 1,002 adults in December by Fannie Mae, the government-backed mortgage investor, found that the highest number of consumers in the survey believe home prices will rise this year, forty-three percent expect mortgage rates to jump and forty nine percent believe the cost of renting will also rise.

Roll all this together, says Doug Duncan, Fannie’s chief economist, and you can see why consumer sentiment “could incentivize those waiting on the sidelines … to buy a home sooner rather than later” — pushing spring behavior into mid-winter.

Things are definitely looking up for the luxury real estate market this year. The buyers are out and ready, which makes this a great time to list your luxury property.

The housing recovery is here and it cannot be stopped, only moderated, Robert Curran, managing director and lead homebuilding analyst at New York-and London-based Fitch Ratings, told Reuters. Curran is joining an ever-larger chorus of experts predicting the both home price and home sales will rise this year, providing that no unforeseen economic disaster strikes.

“Last year was clearly an up year for the major housing macros, a lot of things came together very nicely and we have come off of a very low low,” Curran said. “I don’t think there are major risks to the recovery. There are issues that could moderate the level the further recovery that we are experiencing in 2013. But short of a meaningful economic recession, I think we are still intact.”

Source: The Real Deal