Maine Real Estate News and Notes

We have just updated our 2008 full year sales results for southern Maine, and as expected sales in nearly every town and community are below 2007 levels. Prices, contrary to what you might have been led to believe, have not fallen as sharply.  Complete sales results and market statistics are available at Maine Home Sales – 2008.

But, all thing being equal, price continues to be a significant issue and fundamental to the success of every property transaction during the last six months and no doubt the foreseeable future.

Today, there’s a committed buyer waiting to pounce on every aggressively priced home. This is evidenced by the large inventory of available homes - in every community and every price range - being steadily consumed from the bottom up by the most value-obsessed buyers in recent memory. If you must sell your home in today’s market, you must commit to three important things: 1) Ensure that your home is in the best condition it can possibly be; 2) Demand the most aggressive marketing plan available from your realtor and 3) Determine a price that provides you with an advantage compared to the competition. Where an unbeatable location once ruled the day, an unbeatable price and wide ranging Internet marketing are the primary games in town. 

Fundamental Changes in the Market

Although the sheer number of potential buyers has leveled off considerably from the headiest days of the boom in 2005 and 2006, serious buyers exist.  They tend to be more qualified than in recent years. They are well-funded, have down payments, and actually tend to occupy the home. They are in many cases motivated by prices not seen in more than a half-dozen years.

Truth be told, they are combing the market in far greater numbers than most media-hardened consumers have been conditioned to believe. To eventually sit across a closing table from the future owners of your home, you must be willing to price it with a similar degree of motivation. When mutual degrees of buyer and seller motivation collide, contracts and checkbooks magically appear.

Web Traffic Improved

How do we know there are plenty of value-conscious buyers letting their fingers do the walking across a computer keyboard in advance of making a well-informed offer?

We keep extremely detailed records of how many people our website – what pages they visit, how long they stay, etc.  Although the volume of activity decreased in the third and fourth quarters of 2007, recent results have show increased enthusiasm.  Website visitors are up over 35% in the last two months.  Returning traffic is up 40%. 

Home Sales and Statistics by Town - 2008 

Detaled home sales results are also available by individual city and town.

	Portland Maine Real Estate
	South Portland Mane Rea Estate
	Scarborough Maine Real Estate
	Cape Elizabeth Maine Real Estate
	Falmouth Maine Real Estate
	Cumberland Maine Real Estate
	Yarmouth Maine Real Estate