Signs of Life in High-End Real Estate in Barrington and East Side

I have been selling real estate in Rhode Island for thirty-four years and 2009 will probably go down in my book as the most challenging. Everyday, I work to untangle a negotiation that is stuck or a problem that needs to be solved. Our typical spring market generally begins in March and ends in June. The high-end typically is very quiet in the city over the summer with many buyers and sellers leaving for second homes and vacation time with loved ones. In the suburbs, most clients want to be settled into their new home by June so that their children get a chance to meet the neighborhood kids before the school year begins. But this year the spring market got pushed back a quarter and the summer seems to be atypically busy. President Obama's housing stimulus plan has allowed first-time home buyers the opportunity to purchase a home and receive up to an $8,000 tax credit. The closing has to take place by November 30, 2009 so agents are busy seven days a week showing properties in the lower price ranges. So, I understand why the lower ranges in the real estate market are coming alive, but why all of a sudden in the dead of summer is the high end beginning to have activity in some areas? The East Side and Barrington seem to be showing signs of coming out of their paralyzed high-end slumber. A handful has gone under agreement and is set to close before the end of August. Once this happens, other buyers will follow because real estate professionals will have some comparable sales to be able to price new listings against or re-price listings that have been sitting on the market. Appraisers will be able to justify sales prices for the banks because they will have comps. It will be easier for sellers to understand why the competition sold. Was it price, condition, staging, marketing or a combination of all of them? This Week's Real Estate Insight It is too early to say that we are coming out of this unprecedented real estate cycle but the good news is that buyers and sellers understand the market better. The media isn't pummeling us hourly with bad real estate news. Everyday, you can find an article on an area of the country that is starting to see real estate activity. I am happy to report that like Sleeping Beauty awakening from her long slumber, we may be seeing the beginning of a slow awakening too.