Is it time for you to move up?

Fewer pending sales, slightly lower sales prices and fewer new listings are hallmarks of the autumn market – and this year is no different. But while numbers are down on a month-to-month basis, the market is still outperforming last year.

What does this mean? Homeowners like you are returning to positive equity and finding selling to be a viable option. Those who are looking to trade up are in an especially good position.

The numbers show growing equity

According to data from RealtyTrac, 40 percent of people with a mortgage now have at least 20 percent equity in their homes. This shift has primarily been due to robust price increases across the country. Nationally, rapid gains in sales prices have been commonplace. For example, September’s average sales price in our market was up 12 percent over last year.

"While exact data on move-up buyers is hard to come by, the share of first-time buyers has been declining, dropping to 28 percent of purchases in August from 31 percent in August 2012, while at the same time sales have surged by double digits,” reads an MSN report. "From that, it appears second-time-around buyers are becoming a bigger part of housing sales as home prices and interest rates have started to rise."

Trade-ups becoming more popular

While the housing recovery has enabled many to purchase homes for their first time, experts note that trade-up buying is another good sign the market is improving.

"An important sign of a healthy and sustainable recovery is increased housing turnover driven by trade-up buying, which is more or less discretionary spending," says MSN. "These buyers are typically more responsive to market conditions and financial incentives."

Ready to get off the fence and into today's red hot market? Contact us today and we'll get you started with the tradeup process.