Savannah Home Market - Good Things Don't Always Come To Those Who Wait

  Although Savannah Ga hasn’t been affected as severely by the real estate slowdown as many areas in the country, houses are staying on the market a little longer before being sold. Days on the market are not alarmingly longer but there has been a change.

In downtown Savannah in 2005 homes stayed on the market an average of 117 days, in 2006 the number of days was 127 and in 2007 it has been 142.

The numbers for midtown Savannah are, respectively, 68, 80, 93, starting again with 2005.

For Southside Savannah the numbers are 65, 77, 95.

I thought the differences would be much greater. There is a lot of talk about 2008 being a year of gradual upward movement in home-buying. For home-buyers it's probably the best time in a long time to buy at a reasonable price.

I’m like a broken record sometimes when I feel strongly about something, but I feel compelled to let buyers know that if they wait until the market turns upwards they might miss the best opportunity they had during this buyer’s market.

This is not some sale’s pitch from a desperate realtor – actually this has been my most productive year in my real estate career – it's just a warning that when the market starts going back up I have a strong suspicion there's a lot of pent-up demand in the Savannah market and prices will take another huge leap in the next couple of years.

We avoided the irrational rise in prices experienced in the northeast and the west, so our home prices are still in a very attractive range. It may take the northeast and the west longer to stabilize but around here the adjustment seems to have been made. All the buyers holding off to buy because they are waiting to see what will happen need to be careful they don’t wait too long.

Later,

Mike from Savannah