Perks of Selling Your Home Could Outweigh Challenges of Buying

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Updated · 4 min read
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Written by Elizabeth Renter
Senior Economist
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Edited by Kathy Hinson
Lead Assigning Editor

While it’s a notoriously tough time to buy a home, the incentives to sell the one you’re in could be too good to pass up.

Most (89%) of current homeowners who want to list their homes right now say something is preventing them from doing so, according to NerdWallet’s recently released 2022 Home Buyer Report. The most commonly cited roadblocks: concerns about finding a new house and paying too much for a new house.

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It’s true that finding a home and especially finding one that fits all of your needs is a challenge right now. Competition over the few homes on the market is driving prices up. It’s taking multiple offers and sometimes a hot tip on a house not yet listed to close a deal. However, current owners have an edge. By making the most of the market on the seller side, they’ll enter the buyer side with more money to fuel their buying power.

Buyers want your home

Inventory is so low, there are likely multiple buyers looking for a home like yours right now.

In 2019, there were 1.3 million homes on the market in any given month, on average. By 2021, the number of active listings had fallen by 57%, to 540,000 on average, according to NerdWallet’s analysis of Realtor.com data. There was already a home shortage before the pandemic, but COVID-19 took a bad situation and made it worse. Now, homes are selling within days, not weeks or months, and commanding multiple competitive offers. That demand shows few signs of letting up.

Nearly 26 million Americans say they plan to buy a home this year, according to the Home Buyer Report. That number is unrealistic — typically 5 million to 6 million homes are sold each year — but it does indicate the flood of buyers isn’t likely to subside.

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