Monday, March 8, 2010

Down-sizing or: Honey I Shrunk The House!


If Open Houses are an indication of what people are interested in these days, the answer is ‘downsizing’.

This weekend I hosted two open homes – one a lovely, bright and airy 2800 sq. ft. ranchette on 2 acres, 5 minutes north of town for $675,000, the other an 840 sq. ft condo in the California Park area for $178,000.

In five hours I had just five visitors at the roomy ranchette – four of whom were curious neighbors. I had almost double that number through the cozy condo within the first hour!...and each visitor had a similar story “we’re looking for something smaller” and “we want to be closer in”.

Recent predictions regarding the future of the real estate market have focused on the desires of older buyers looking for ‘walkable’ properties, central to shopping and amenities, with a built-in social network. Condominiums and townhomes fit this bill well.

This is a promising development for the owners of condominiums who often see their units languish and prices drop when housing sales slow. Maybe not such great news for all those beautiful big country homes on the outskirts of town

No comments:

Post a Comment