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'Buyers are getting realistic:' Jacksonville realtor seeing housing market correction, good for buyers

CC Underwood says gone are the days of getting offers 100,000 over asking price.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — The housing market may be heading in a new direction: better for buyers. 

Expect to start seeing more for sale signs. Jacksonville realtor CC Underwood says home inventory in Duval County has more than doubled in just the past few weeks. 

More inventory means more options for buyers. 

"I mean all crazy markets... they’re not going to last forever. I think we’ve had two years of cheap money essentially," Underwood said. 

She explains when the buyer has more options, they can be pickier and take their sweet time. It’s something buyers haven’t been able to do for about 2 years.

“We’ve actually seen buyers take a break," said Underwood. "Because they were in this heightened mode for so long of 'I got to have it. Got to have it.' We were seeing buyers... they had to make offers 20, 30, 50 even 100 thousand dollars over the asking price."

"Buyers of yesterday were willing to pay the gap. The buyers of today aren’t," Underwood said. 

She says this is a market correction. It is not a crash.

Homes are now taking longer to sell and that mean buyers can start going in under the asking price and asking sellers to pay for your closing costs.

"What we are seeing is buyers are getting realistic," said Underwood. "Buyers have said stop. Buyers do control the market. Buyers are the ones with the money. They’re the ones who can say yes we are willing to pay above. They are now the ones to say no we’re not. We only want to pay appraised value right now."

Buyer beware though. Interest rates are climbing. The Feds increased interest rates and we are seeing mortgage rates above 5% so keep that in mind. 

That can affect what home you can afford right now. 

Underwood suggests if you can get closing costs covered, try using that cash to buy down your rate.

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