“It is important to recognize that 2016 is shaping up to be the best year in recent memory to sell. Supply remains very tight, so inventory is moving faster. Given the forecast that price appreciation will slow in 2016 to a more normal rate of growth, delaying will not produce substantially higher values, and will also see higher mortgage rates on any new purchase,” wrote Realtor.com Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke recently.

Should his sage advice to sellers fall on deaf ears, 2016 could produce one of the most miserable housing market in years.  After seven years of struggle, the issue no longer is demand, it’s supply. Anemic inventories are artificially driving up prices that keep first-time buyer trapped in rentals, which as expect to soar again this year.

Home sales prices have risen between 15 and 20 percent over the past three seasons, depending on which series you believe.  We’re less than 18 months away from reaching a national median sales price that’s higher than the very highest peak at the very top of the housing bubble in 2006.

Frozen stiff without enough equity to sell for nearly decade, owners at last have made it to the light at the end of the tunnel.  They can sell and cash out.  They can refi or take out a HELOC and stay put.  Moreover, with experts predicting that sale prices will moderate in 2016 to 4-5 percent appreciation from 6 percent as the market slow down to catch, this could be the perfect year to sell.

With the clock ticking on the opening of the 2016 season, now is the time potential sellers are making up their minds to sell or not.

Fannie Mae

In Fannie Mae’s December Home Purchase Sentiment Index, Fewer than half of respondents in Fannie Mae’s survey of consumers said it’s a good time to sell (49 percent) and 41 percent said it’s a bad time to sell.  Not exactly a strong endorsement but at least movement in the right direction.  The best thing about the findings was that in November the sentiment to sell was even lower—48 percent said it was a good time and percent and 44 percent said it was a bad time.

read more…

http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2016/01/will-sellers-step-up-the-plate-in-2016/