NJ in horrible spot on list of states for homes selling fastest

Well, how on Earth did this happen?

Remember, not very long ago, all we heard from frustrated homebuyers was that they had to waive inspections and put astronomical overbids on homes for sale to have even the slightest chance of getting them. How homes were selling almost the same day they went on the market?

Now comes a report saying New Jersey homes aren’t selling very fast compared to the rest of the country.

A research crew at View Homes calculated the metric of homes unsold after being on the market for 30 days and ranked states by percentage.

For example, over 49% of homes put up for sale in Rhode Island remained unsold after 30 days, making them dead last in the rankings and worst in the nation if you were hoping for a quick sale. They used data from Zillow.com, studying over 150,000 property listings all across the United States.

According to this, Montana homes are selling the fastest, having the lowest percentage remaining on the market after 30 days. Montana’s unsold homes stood at only 15.60 %.

Okay, maybe we’re not the fastest according to this, but we’re at least in the top 10, right?

Wrong.

After Montana, the study says homes are selling the fastest in Alaska, Wyoming, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, West Virginia, Vermont, North Dakota, and Maine.

So, where is New Jersey?

49th place.

According to their methodology, results showed we were next to last. We had, according to this (can you tell I’m skeptical?), 39.68% of homes for sale remaining unsold after lol 30 days.

So, being skeptical, I reached out to the guy who got my home sold in only six days on the market and for $10,000 over the asking price. Robert Dekanski of Remax 1st Advantage.

Rob says this study can be misleading.

“I think the conclusion that the first Zillow study came to doesn’t tell the whole story. If you notice, the bottom 5 states, Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, are all in the Northeast. Our housing market tends to move very seasonally here, and you’ll see days on the market shoot up in the winter and drop in the spring and summer. States with more moderate to warm or hot climates will see more consistent home selling year round.”

Other reasons why those looking to sell a home in New Jersey still should feel very good?

“54% of New Jersey homes are selling over list price, while nationally it’s only 26.5%. We’ve also seen a 7.7% increase in average home value compared with 2.7% nationally,” Dekanski said.

Rob explained more of why New Jersey sellers should be far from discouraged.

“The market here continues to be strong for sellers because we have, in my opinion, two X factors at play. One, we are a feeder market to Manhattan. People can earn Manhattan money and live in the New Jersey suburbs. Two, New Jersey is so over-developed that homeowners don’t have builders and new construction communities to compete with. If somebody wants to buy a home here, they can only do so if someone wants to sell.”

So take heart, sellers; you still have a lot going for you.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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