We’ve seen it in our local market.  Home sales are on the increase.  Real life multiple offer situations are occurring again (especially on homes priced right and nicely staged), the phones seem to be ringing again, and there are more agents coming in to the office.

We have a cork-board where new listings and new pending sales are posted for other agents to see a snapshot of the market.  At the worst, there would be maybe four or five posted in a two-week period.  From a company that regularly had $4 million in sales each week, taking a full quarter to reach that mark was painful.  Our cork board is filling up again, though, and it’s the same story nationwide.

Unfortunately, forecasters are talking about the “shadow” market that’s about to step out of the outer darkness.   According to NPR,

Shadow inventory comes in several forms. It includes homes in or close to foreclosure but not yet put up for sale — a number that’s increasing. It also includes homes that owners want to sell but are waiting to put on the market until it improves.

In a recent survey, Zillow found that nearly a third of homeowners would have considered putting their homes up for sale if the market were better. Nationally, that would mean between 11 million and 30 million homes that aren’t listed but are waiting on the sidelines.

I still believe the best time to buy may have passed.  With the federal tax credit due to expire in less than two weeks and interest rates creeping up, the very best time to buy may be gone.  However, homes are still very affordable AND compared to double-digit rates of two decades ago, the current rates of 5.1% to 6.0% (depending on the type of loan you get), are still excellent.