You’ve likely heard that the current housing climate is a strong seller’s market. Inventory is low and buyer demand is high, often giving sellers a large pool of buyers and multiple offers when they choose to list their home.
Still, many homeowners can remain on the fence about whether or not now is the time to put their house on the market. If you’d like to sell, but need an extra nudge to get the ball rolling on your listing, here’s some great news for you- millions of potential buyers are expected to re-enter the market with strong motivation to buy a home.
A recent study conducted by TransUnion titled, “The Bubble, the Burst and Now – What Happened to the Consumer?” revealed that 1.5 million homeowners who were negatively impacted by the housing crisis could re-enter the housing market between 2016-2019. Additionally, HousingWire analyzed data from the US Bankruptcy Courts and revealed that 6 million Americans will have their bankruptcies disappear off their credit reports over the next five years and that this could “possibly send a flood of more homebuyers into the housing market.”
The chart below shows the total number of bankruptcies filed by year in the US over the last 10 years. The light blue bars represent over 3.3 million people who have already waited the 7 years necessary for their reports to no longer include their bankruptcies.
How would this “send a flood of more homebuyers into the housing market”?
As the article mentioned, in 2010 the number of chapter 7 bankruptcies increased to nearly 1.14 million. Now, 7 years later, they will begin to fade from credit histories, enabling prospective buyers to become homeowners again once their credit scores improve. As we can see from both reports, the homeownership rate has the opportunity to increase drastically over the next few years with all of these boomerang buyers returning to the market.
For this large group of previously unqualified potential buyers, motivation will be high to take advantage of their new financial statuses and move forward with pursing their dream of purchasing a home. For sellers, the combination of a new group of untapped buyers all arriving on the market within the same time period represents a potential windfall in an already hot market.
Bottom Line
If interest in selling your home has been piqued by the current hot market, things are shaping up to get even hotter. Newly listed properties will be well positioned to see one of the largest potential buyer audiences in recent years. If you’d like to get more insight on the timing of selling your home or take the next steps to putting it on the market, fill out the information below to get in contact with our team.
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