By By ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Why are so many homes for sale?
That seems to be a beaming question among area residents, and it's pretty easy to see why. Travel down most roads in and around Niles and you're bound to see a for sale sign in the front yard of a number of homes.
This is raising a lot of questions and Chris Moore, realtor at ReMax Modern Realty, Inc. said it's really a complicated situation right now.
"It's turned into a buyers' market. One buyer has a lot more houses to look at right now than they used to and they seem to be making decisions from what they hear from the media. People just need to turn their televisions off and make their own choices because a lot of what they are hearing is not true," Moore said.
She also stated that there are a large number of foreclosures, which will effect a regular priced home.
"It's just been very odd, some things that people want are priced right and they fly off the market, while others sit for sale for a while," Moore added.
One thing to look at when selling your home is to try to make it buyer friendly.
"Don't watch HGTV and get the idea to paint your rooms bright green. That has a lot to do with why people won't buy a home. They want simple things or rooms they can decorate themselves. By all means people should enjoy their homes while they are living there and be able to decorate it anyway they want. A bright room may appeal to the home owner, but not to person looking to buy," she added.
Paul Crouch of Cressy &Everett Real Estate also agreed that foreclosures are hurting the regular priced homes, but he also stated that we are not as bad off as everyone may think.
"We aren't suffering nearly as bad as the East Coast or West Coast, or even down South in places like Florida. This is a nationwide problem right now because homes just aren't going like they used to. Home prices in other parts of the country are down as much as $100,000 and a lot has to do with taxes being higher," Crouch continued. "We really have reasonable tax prices here. Compare us to Indiana – they are quite a bit higher than us and are suffering more than we are."
Another issue Crouch pointed out was the fact that a lot of new developments are being put in with the expectation that people will flood to buy them, when in actuality, people are turning to the used homes first.
"They are looking for pools, pole barns, additional acreage, you really can't find those with new houses and people don't want to spend the time or money to put them in when they can buy a home with those already supplied."
Crouch also pointed to that fact that the employment rate isn't the best right now.
"It would really help if the employment rate was up. But overall I think if people look at our town compared other parts of the country, we really do have it better than we think," he added.
Both Moore and Crouch said with everything going on, people should not be afraid to look into purchasing a home.
"There is almost an oversupply of homes for sale right now, which isn't completely a bad thing because the prices of homes are down," Crouch said.