For a considerably long time the average homeowner stayed in their home for approximately 6 years. Since 2009 that number is increased to where is bouncing between 9 and 10 years. This is a 50 + percent increase.
There are a few reasons for people staying in their homes longer. One of the biggest reasons was the housing boom of 10 or more years ago. House prices rose precipitously and people are still wee buying homes. But then housing prices fell. And many of the people who wanted to sell to move into a more appropriate home, couldn’t.
Why not? They couldn’t sell because they were in a negative equity situation. This means that they owed more on the mortgage than the property would sell for. And they didn’t have the cash to make up the shortfall.
Now if they didn’t need to sell then it was not a very big problem as long as they can keep up the payments. If they did need to sell, then quite often they had to go into a short sale. And then wasn’t good for anyone.
But now due to the lack of available inventory and high demand for housing, prices have been climbing back up to levels seen ten or more years ago. As a matter of fact, due to rising home prices, almost 94% of the homes that have a mortgage are in a positive equity situation. That means that these people are able to sell their homes. And many of them are trying to.
However what is holding them back is the lack of available inventory. The millennium’s are sitting in either a rental or in a small condo and wishing to buy a larger house so that they can have room for their family. And there are many empty nesters who still have the old big 4 bedroom Colonial. And they’re looking to move into an adult community