Hey Mike - Buyers vs. Sellers Market

"Hey Mike! I hear it's a buyers market right now. What does that mean and is it good or bad?"

Perfect question!

Let's take a look at the "market" real quick. For our purposes here, we will refer to the market as the thing that homes are bough and sold in. The market goes in cycles and within those cycles there are either too many houses and not enough buyers or, the opposite, too many buyers and not enough sellers.

So, simply put, a buyers market means there AREN'T a lot of buyers, but there ARE a lot of houses for the buyer to choose from, hooray for the buyer! Not so hot for the seller.

Flip that around and you get a sellers market, meaning there AREN'T a lot of homes for sale, but there ARE a lot of buyers, hooray for the seller! Not so cool for the buyer.

As you can probably guess, in a buyers market, houses are usually going to be cheaper as there is a lot of competition and not huge amount of demand, so to get houses to sell they need to be priced very aggressively.

The opposite is also true (you should be noticing a trend here). In a sellers market houses are going to be priced higher because there is a lot of competition and people are willing to pay more money to get one of the few houses available on the market.

"Ok Mike, I get it! This is great and all, but what does it mean for me?"

I thought you'd never ask! What it means is that if you're selling in a buyers market, you're typically going to sell for less. But wait, all is not lost! Because, if you're selling for less and looking to buy in the same buyers market, you are also going to be buying for less! See?!

"But wait, I'm in a sellers market and I'm going to make some huge money on the sale of my home!"

That's AWESOME for you! But...unless you're moving to a totally different market than the one you're in, now you're going to be buying in a sellers market and paying more for a house, so realistically you're gains aren't quite as awesome as they seem.

So, in conclusion, my advice to you, sell your home in Vancouver and move to Lethbridge!

If that's not a possibility, don't stress too much about which market it is right now. As long as you're buying and selling within the same type of market, which home and area is right for you should be much higher on your list than what type of market you should buy or sell in.