A Sign of Good Things to Come in North Jersey Real Estate?

I was going to do a Blog today about the closed sales so far in 2009 for Lincoln Park, New Jersey. However, when I started investigating, I realized only 1 single family/condo property has closed in town since 1/1/09 (7 Sherman Road, sold for $367,000.)* There goes that Blog! There are 12 single family/condo properties currently under contract in Lincoln Park, so hopefully they will all close soon and I'll have a Blog to write!

What I will Blog about, instead, is the activity I have been seeing lately. I have several first-time buyers that are now ready and have written offers. But, believe it or not, a few of the houses have had "multiple offers" on them. (We didn't think we would be seeing that term anytime soon, did we?) These are not the multiple offers of a few years ago where the offers were at or over the asking price. These are multiple "lower" offers. During the past two weeks, I have written several contracts for first-time home buyers that have had other offers on the property. So far, several of the sellers have been motivated enough to negotiate to a price agreeable to both the buyers and the sellers. However, there some sellers that will not come down to the price of the multiple offers..and those homes are still for sale.

There are buyers out there, so if you are still on the fence, it is time to jump off and make offers on the existing inventory. Don't wait! I even have first time buyers waiting for houses to come on the market...so sellers, time to sell..Spring is here!

Lets hope the activity I am seeing in this area is a sign of good things to come. Just in case, I'm taking advantage of it by putting a lot of gas in my car and seeing a lot of houses. I love it!

*As per the Garden State Multiple Listing Service 2/17/2009