What it's like in the Million Dollar Market
When a neighborhood has never seen a million-dollar sale, it can be scary for a buyer to cross over that threshold. Their agent is probably advising them that there could be issues getting their financing through the appraisal process because there might not be other homes to support this new price jump. Like the old adage, you don't want the best house in the worst neighborhood.
Right now in the Seattle area market, homes are selling for an average of 6-10% over list price. A savvy seller (and Realtor) knows this and will want to price their home to reflect that, so we often see homes underpriced on purpose to reflect buyer'’ expectations. We see many million-dollar homes priced in the $900,000s.
Homes in the Western Region of Washington have seen a 21.1% increase in the median price in just 12 months due to high demand and low supply. A lot of buyers have had to bump up their budget into the million-dollar range to get what they want.
I find that million-dollar buyers have very specific needs in their home search and are in a position to wait to find the right one. They often don't need to move or sell first in order to upsize to their next home. They have the luxury to wait. It's taking these buyers much longer to find a home to purchase because they can afford to be a little pickier.
When the buyer is right at the million-dollar mark, they are still being very accommodating to sellers. We've been offering free rent-backs, no seller-paid closing costs, and waiving appraisals. If a buyer is in a position to have a home inspection, meaning they were not in a multiple offer situation and needed to waive inspection, they're not asking for a lot. They're sticking to the big-ticket items like roofs, crawlspace, etc.
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