Tag: Lehigh Valley Real Estate

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2021 February Real Estate Statistics – The Ups and Downs of it all!

Welcome to the wacky world for real estate and the real estate statistics for February 2021! The past snow storms and the lack of inventory and the pandemic have taken their toll once again.

I invite you to watch my video below.

New Listings

New listings were down -28.5% over this time last year. The new listings on the market in 2021 was only 501 compared to last year’s number of 701.

Closed Sales

Completed or closed sales was down -11.7% . The number of closed sales for February 2021 was 416 compared to last year’s number of 471.

Days on Market

Days on Market (DOM) is a very important number because it tells us how quickly a home is going to sell. For February 2021 the DOM was 23 days! That’s down from 51 DOM last year. And that is a -54.9% change. It’s crazy how quickly a house is selling!

Average Sales Price

The average sales price has risen from $231,473 up to $269,989. That’s a +16.6% increase in prices. It is proof positive that because inventory levels are low and demand is high- that has a positive push on prices. They continue to go up and up!

% of List Price Received

This number tells us how much negotiating power a buyer has. And this number tells us how much a seller should expect to receive on the list price. Houses are selling for 100.4% of the list price. There have been multi offers on most every home and buyers are bing forced to pay list price or more for a property. Not much negotiating room.

Months Supply

When the housing market is level there is about 6 months supply of homes available to be sold. As the months of supply shrinks it becomes a “Sellers’ Market” and as that number of months increase, the market becomes a “Buyers’ Market”. We currently have .7 months supply of homes on the market! That’s another crazy number! It just proves that there is no inventory to buy so everyone is fighting over the same house. This time last year there were 1.7 months supply on the market. That change equates to a -58.8% change.

What This Means for YOU?!?!

If you’re a seller then you can expect to receive multiple offers for your home. You will sell at your list price or higher. And if you’re a buyer? You’ll need to be prepared with a pre-approval and the ability to make a quick decision. My suggestion……start to look at properties which are priced under your pre-approval amount. That way you can bid at list price or you can afford to overbid to be the winning offer.

It’s not an easy market for anyone in real estate; buyers, sellers and agents. You need to work with a professional who will help you get through the process without giving up all of your negotiating power.

If I can help you Sell, Buy or Invest in real estate, please give me a call. My number is 610-417-1174. I look forward to hearing from you!

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10 Things that I love About Bethlehem, PA

When you’re thinking about Moving to the Lehigh Valley, you may consider Bethlehem!

Hi Everybody!  I want to tell you about the ten things that I love about Bethlehem.  If you’re thinking about moving here, it’s a great place to live!

#10-  It’s close to Philadelphia which is about an hour and a half away.  New York City is almost two hours away.  And the Poconos where we can go skiing and have fun in the mountains is just about forty-five minutes north of here. But still there are lots of rural spaces all around town.

#9 – It’s a great place to live with a good cost of living and plentiful jobs

#8 – You can’t miss the restaurant scene and the beer scene here in Bethlehem.

#7 – there is lots of music and the arts scene is really cool

#6 – Because of the universities and colleges there is a great academic vibe throughout town

#5 – There is always fun places to go and exercise outside

#4 – Main Street!  Spending the day on Main Street in Bethlehem is always a great pastime.  It’s fun to visit all of the shops, enjoy really wonderful food in fabulous restaurants and just watch the world go by

#3 – Bethlehem is filled with gorgeous architecture

#2 – The Historic District as well as the City’s history cannot be beat

#1 –  We love our festivals in the summertime!

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#1 Mistake When Downsizing

Watch the Video https://youtu.be/jaLVlg-kWk0

Transcript from the video:

Hi everybody, I’m Diana Hodgson from The RedHeadAgent team and Keller Williams Real Estate here in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. 

Welcome to my channel!  This is my first video; I hope to have many more following.  And today, I’d like to tell you about the biggest mistake that most everyone makes when they’re downsizing. 

The biggest mistake is that they wait too long.  They wait too long to make this decision and unfortunately sometimes it’s a life change that will spur on the downsizing before someone is quite ready. 

So, my three tips in downsizing are make a plan.  Make sure that you’re sure where you want to go.  Start to visit other communities or start to look around with a professional.  Hire a real estate agent to show you smaller houses.  Start to look at different neighborhoods, go to the other state to look.  Do your investigation…Make a plan. 

Secondly, tell someone about the plan. So if it’s your daughter, or your son, your sisters, your brothers, somebody…Let them know what you’d like to do in your retirement or when you’re starting to downsize so that they understand if something should happen or if there’s a life change that happens in your life that you can’t make decisions for yourself any longer, at least someone knows what your plans are. 

And then third, hire a professional.  Hire professionals to help you move, to help you downsize, to help you get rid of your stuff, to help haul away junk….all of that.  And usually a good real estate agent will have a list of people that will be able to help you do all of those things and help you get through that process.

So, if you have any questions regarding real estate that I can answer, please put them in the comments below.  Also, if you’d like to see my next video which I hope you do, please hit the subscribe button and we’ll see each other next time.  Thanks so much, take good care!