LBI Real Estate Buyers Are Gaining Some Advantages in Negotiation

High Tides Digital Marketing
Sep 15, 2022
3 min read

Long Beach Island Real Estate Buyer Conditions Are Improving

Long Beach Island Real Estate Buyers

There is no doubt that the Long Beach Island real estate market has changed in the past few months, and many of those changes have helped improve conditions for buyers in the LBI real estate sales market. While inventory is still very low and has, in fact, dropped by about a third in the last few weeks, sellers are no longer able to push the price of a home like they could a year or so ago. To be clear, the market has not dropped (if anything, it has increased slightly), and I do not foresee a crash coming. Instead, the LBI real estate market is moving to a more balanced market, which is a dramatic improvement for buyers on Long Beach Island.

LBI Real Estate Buyers Are Gaining Some Advantages in Negotiation

Buyers in today's LBI real estate market are likely facing a little less competition and now have the ability to insert more "standard" terms into their offers. While bidding wars are still commonplace, the intensity of the market has lessened. Buyers are starting to make more responsible decisions based on trends and comparable sales rather than raw emotion. Two notable trends demonstrate this:

Buyers are demanding, and sellers are agreeing to, contingencies
Sellers are negotiating the price of a home on Long Beach Island

Over the last two years or so, it was commonplace for buyers in the LBI real estate market to make an offer with no contingencies. This meant that a buyer was willing to waive a home inspection, any mortgage contingency, or an appraisal. To not do so meant almost certain defeat in a multiple offer scenario. Now, these terms and conditions are making their way back into the marketplace, and this is a good thing. Those kinds of reckless offers have an element of danger in them that borders on irresponsibility when purchasing a house in the Long Bech Island real estate market.

Sellers are also willing to negotiate their prices far more than they have over the past two years. We have seen an increase in the number of price reductions and the average sales price of a single-family home is around 98% (during the peak of the market, it was well over 100%). Again, this is not to imply the market is dropping or crashing, rather, sellers have come to realize they cannot push the prices like they once could and have to price their home in line with the market and with comparable sales in the Long Beach Island real estate sales market.

Long Beach Island Real Estate Buyer Conditions Are Improving

While the LBI real estate sales market has been extraordinarily competitive over the past two years, today's trends point to a more balanced market. In short, buyer conditions have improved in the Long Beach Island, NJ real estate sales market. While conditions have worsened with mortgage rates, there are some creative ways to work with lending that can help to navigate that changing market as well, so buyers have good reason to be optimistic about the coming market. For more information about buying, selling or investing in the Long Beach Island real estate market please do not hesitate to contact me.