Original Story: upnorthlive.com
TRAVERSE CITY, Mi. (WPBN/WGTU) -- As the weather in northern Michigan is heating up for summer, so is the real estate market.
Homes are selling quickly after being put on the market. A Traverse City real estate lawyer is following this story closely.
"We do have low inventory right now which is great for sellers but can be frustrating for buyers," said Century 21 Northland realtor Meagan Luce.
It's a seller's market for real estate in Traverse City.
"The homes are selling within 97 percent of the list price, there is no 5 to 10 percent discount, you're wasting your time and it just shows that you're uniformed," said Versatile Mortgage owner Randy Brown.
More people than ever are trying to buy homes in Traverse City, but there is not enough inventory to keep up.
"I had just listed a home yesterday and we've already received an offer on it and are expecting a second offer this evening," said Luce.
For many buying, it's not their first home. A Traverse City real estate contracts lawyer represents clients in real estate transactions.
"I would say almost 70 percent of my business is second home buyers," said Luce. "All the time I'll go on listing appointments and I'll have my seller say to me, 'my buyer's coming from Chicago, my buyer's coming from New York, my buyer's coming from Texas' and a lot of our higher end second home buyers are cash buyers and they're actually coming from our region."
But the lack of inventory is hitting one group of buyers particularly hard.
"It's very difficult to find something under 200 thousand and so they're getting kind of priced out of the market because as the real estate prices keep going up, if wages don't track that then we do have a little bit of a bubble there," said Brown.
And says out of town buyers are contributing to this rising market.
"Prices are up and lot of that is influenced by people that are coming to Traverse City from other markets where they understand that Traverse City is still cheap compared to where they're coming from," said Brown.
Realtors say right now the average home in Grand Traverse County is on the market for just over 100 days, but if it's priced right it will go even quicker than that.
They also say this spring they will likely see bidding wars on homes and buyers will actually pay above the listing price.
