Good morning. It's Mike Sears here on the Outer Banks. I hope everybody had a great Easter and you're enjoying Easter Monday for those that have to work. So I took a little vacation. I've been gone for a couple of days and I wanted to get back and I'm going to update you on the last 21 days on the real estate market for the Outer Banks. So in that time period, 193 new listings came up. We currently have 561 on the market.

And in that same period, we had 150 sold, list price average was $705,600, average sold price was $684,461, which gives you a 96.9 %, but roughly 97 % of list price is what things are selling for. But the key to that is prices are being reduced. Expectations of sellers are coming down a little bit based on...education that they're receiving from their realtor. And the fact that the market, it's still in that crazy period where you've got a ton of buyers. You know, we just don't have the inventory. Again, 561 homes on the market. Now in that 561, there's probably about a hundred that are partial ownership, timeshare type housing. So when you look at that,

I know in my database between my wife, Stacey and I, we have close to 40 people looking. Now there's over 900 real estate agents. If everybody's got 40 people looking, there's not nearly enough housing. So that's going to keep the price up a little bit, as well as the drive or the motivation to jump in at a six and a half percent, seven percent interest rates, not driving the market too strong either. But if that interest rate drops,

You're going to see prices increase. You're going to see a lot more buyers on the market fighting and competing over the few houses that are out there for sale. So keep that in mind. If you're buying and you don't want to get into a bargaining situation or auction type situation, make an offer on a property. Go ahead. If you don't want to spend list price, we already know it's 97%. So you're going to ...Make your offer three or 4 % below list price. Get the guidance of your real estate agent to go through, make sure all your inspections are done, make sure that all the follow -up is there. Now, if you're selling and you want to sell quickly, my advice would definitely be that put it on the market sooner than later because there's a lot of buyers out here and they're hungry for a nice looking home, something that they can move right into. Now,

Go back to that 561 on the market. There's an additional 337 under contract. So that balances that a little bit. Now, just to give you 561 on the market pre -COVID, I know that's four years ago now, but average on the market was about 1 ,400. So when you're talking 561, that's a shrunk inventory.

You know, a lot of sellers are in at a lower interest rate and that's what's making their rents work. So that's the reason they're staying and not moving. Um, so in renter up. So, but anyways, going back to the, the five 61 on the market, out of that, the average price overall is $699,900. Then with that being said, you know, 17 million is the highest list price and $295k is our lowest list price. So we've got a really broad range of pricing. So get with an experienced agent, understand the market, understand what you should make offers on if you like the house, get pre -qualified as a buyer, as a seller. Understand that your agent should know when you can price it a little higher or when you need to be very much in the market to get your house sold.

I will honestly say I've shown about 15 houses in the past 24 to  48 hours roughly. And out of that, there was one house that was in great shape. Overall, even a couple of the remodels that we looked at had some issues. So have someone with experience show you these homes, have someone that knows the market guide you through and advise you through these homes.

And we look forward to seeing you next Monday. Hope you have a great week and take care.

To get this report weekly you can find it on Youtube @MichaelSiers