Sellers’ Market! Right is Left. Up is Down…Season starting in Summer – Right Now.

As of the week of June 1, 2020, the Palm Beaches is in a Sellers’ Market!

This is an email thread with a National Reporter just yesterday……

 Hi, Jeff.

This piece is moving through the editing process and should publish soon.

One question: I summarized your words a tiny bit in the sentence below. I do not want to misquote or mischaracterize. Please let me know if this is okay with you.

“Markets [vary] by region. Our market in the Northern Palm Beaches isn’t getting affected much.” 

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On Jun 4, 2020, at 7:33 PM, Jeff Lichtenstein <jeff@echofineproperties.com> wrote:

Our area right now is actually more active, and we are seeing a lineup of pent demand at the same time.

Since we talked in the past few days, there has been an even greater uptick.

It might be better to say that…. Markets can vary wildly by region. 

Urban cities with a high density of people, colder 🥶 climate, and higher tax environment are taking a dramatic hit. Cites like NYC which have been a hub for international and financial jobs with super high cost of living and sky-high prices per square foot will be in for a large adjustment.

The northern Palm Beaches is in a unique spot where all boxes 📦 are checked ✅.

When an earthquake occurs, the land settles differently. This virus is a massive earthquake and things are settling very differently than before.

Northern Palm Beaches 📦 ✅

• No Income tax state
• Lifestyle
• More job ability to work remotely
• Infrastructure of culture/beach 🏖/relative or friend network/play golf ⛳️ 🎾  🎣  🛶 built in/proximity to airport.
• Weather And humidity (safety with virus)
• Low density population and spread out
• Less urban
• Affordability

Jeff

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Thanks so much, Jeff. Glad we got to update this. It is super interesting how quickly the market is adjusting.

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At the moment we are in a Sellers’ Market!

As of the week of June 1, 2020, the Palm Beaches is in a Sellers’ Market!  Last night at 10pm I had a client from Pennsylvania who wanted to pull the trigger on a property. I called to check the status of it. Under Contract! Earlier in the week a Buyer pulled out of a contract negotiating on repairs. The next day we put it under the contract for $5k more. The Buyers agent whose Buyers pulled out were stunned. Have another situation where we have a Buyer who found some things in an inspection report and wants the seller to repair. Problem is our Buyer beat out 3 others to win this contract. Our June and July closings are incredibly strong. The market has become stronger since then so if you are purchasing better be careful of pushing to hard……

So, our advice to Buyers is the Summer might be the new “Season” this year. Up is Down. Left is Right.

Normal Schedule of Purchasing

• • Snowbirds arrive between October 15 – November 15
  • But they do not buy so much between those dates. Its more back and forth. Then you have Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hanukkah, New Years.
  • The Renters come down on January 1
  • Relatives visit during Winter Break. Figure December 20 – January 5^th.
  • Everyone plays a round of golf, goes to beach, does a Costco run and celebrates the relatives going back up North.
  • Looking takes place between Jan 10^th and February 15^th. People in this time frame are figuring out where they want to be. Do I hold off a year? Delray Beach condo or Palm Beach Gardens Single Family Home? In a normal market, the cherry homes will sell in this period. In a hot market Buying starts here.
  • Feb 15^th – March 31. This is the feeding frenzy. Renters must purchase before their rent ends on March 31. Girt bought a home and now her friend, Barbara, who would like to keep up with Girt, gives her husband Irving the “eyes” at an open house, when he isn’t interested in purchasing. Irving knows from the “eyes” that is its time to purchase and if he does not than uh oh……….

• • April – May. Snowbirds still buying but more shotgun approach because they know what they want. If a bad market, prices can dip. If a strong market, then only leftovers to purchase and you know prices will be going up next season.
  • April – July 3^rd. Families start looking right after spring break. Mid May and June are the big family purchasing months as school ends. Mom wants to purchase by July 4^th. School starts on August 15^th typically and families want to be settled before that date.
  • July – August- September. Our deadest months. Snowbirds and Renters are long gone. Locals are on vacations. Hurricane watch starts in late August. Some pre buyers will come down after Labor Day. And the cycle starts again.
  • *We are less seasonal than 20 years ago. When I moved down here, there was a Starbucks in the mall and a Mexican Restaurant in Tequesta.

Flash forward and there is a Starbucks and Chic Mexican restaurant cafe on every corner. The Northern Palm Beaches is not Kansas anymore. Meaning, while season still matters, we are much more of a year-round market with more full-time residents and industry that has relocated here.

But now you can take the playbook and throw it out the window.

There is a lot of moving around from within the area, but we are being invaded by the Northerners who just want to get the hell out of Dodge. So “Season” might be starting right now!

I have no illusions that the economy is hunky dory. I used to travel 35 weeks a year until from 21 – 29 years of age. The amount of money spent on airline trips, hotels, restaurants, rental cars, was fantastic. I do not think that will all go away. But with Zoom a lot of it has. We are doing listing presentations and meeting Buyers over Zoom and getting much more accomplished than with a normal phone call. A lot of this tech is going to stay. We are doing physical open houses but someone in Boston today can complete 3-D VR Tours  or stream into one of our open houses and really get a good feel for what it is like.

Everyone has their own beliefs on social distancing.

I get that. But regardless, restaurants are not going back to 100% capacity until a vaccine is invented. And their costs have increased with masks and more costs of disinfecting. Some are not going to make it throughout our country. Other industries are in the same boat. And those jobs effect the people who are most vulnerable. The trickle up effect which limits their purchasing power then effects both people in the middle and the top is going to be the most significant.

But I get back to the Palm Beaches. For reasons discussed in past blogs  8 Covid Real Estate Trends, Florida Real Estate on the Mend regarding our lack of Supply and area growth put us in an extremely unique position. In 2008, South Florida, Orlando, Vegas, and Arizona all overbuilt with Speculation homes and we got hit the worst by far. This time is vastly different.

About Us……ECHO Fine Properties is unique in the industry, a non-traditional approach to an old, “traditional” business joined with a ground-breaking tech product. Our 57-point Home Home ECHOnomics Guarantee capsulizes our commitment to meeting the needs of every customer. Our “Best Sellers” book of 471 glowing testimonials proves that the combination of 50 top agents and an industry-leading team of gifted Realty Nerds are the reasons we leave nothing but happy buyers and sellers in our wake.

Jeff Lichtenstein, is the owner and broker of Echo Fine Properties, a luxury real estate brokerage in Florida. Jeff has 20 years of experience, closed over a 1,000 transactions, and manage over 50 agents in a non-traditional model of real estate that mimics a traditional corporate business model that ensures their clients that everything that is supposed to happen.

Some publications Echo has been quoted in.

For a Zoom meeting or confidential phone conversation about your real estate needs, email Jeff at Jeff@EchoFineProperties.com or 561.346.8383