It’s hurricane season right now — prime time for hurricane landfalls in the United States — which means that if you are buying a home this is your best chance to get it at a low price. On average during hurricane season, about one hurricane per month makes landfall in the US. These hurricane season sales are a great opportunity for you to get a deal on housing if you’re buying property — and if you’re selling, it’s a good time to sell at a lower price than usual.
Hurricanes May Deplete Home Sales
Homebuyers are able to take advantage of many great bargains during hurricane season, but it can be difficult to find homes that aren’t affected by hurricanes. Since hurricane damage is sometimes severe, homeowners may not be able to sell their homes at all. On top of that, hurricane damages will often depreciate home values – HOA fees might be higher because of hurricane repairs and some homeowners simply won’t want to move into a hurricane-affected neighborhood again.
Finding Accurate Comparative Market Analysis Can Be Difficult
A good comp indicates what a hurricane affected home would sell for in its current condition and takes hurricane damage and repairs into consideration to set an accurate price. Unfortunately, because of the hurricane season, finding an accurate comparative market analysis can become difficult when inventory is low – hurricane damage often makes homes unsellable for months or years at a time. Therefore, many times sellers end up pricing their homes higher than they should because they do not have much competition from other hurricane affected houses on the market.
Appraisal Value Reports Will Take More Time
At times, hurricanes severely damage a condo or home’s structure and can make them unsellable. In such cases, it takes months or even years before an accurate appraisal report can be issued by lenders and real estate agents because comps in the area will not reflect that information in the meantime (while hurricane damages are being repaired).
Hurricane Season Sales
Make sure that these hurricane season sales are actually hurricane season sales (i.e., hurricane-damage related) and not just post-hurricane hurricane season sales (i.e., hurricane damage that occurred months ago). As with many of the economic effects of natural disasters — such as price increases, business interruptions, loss of inventory, etc. — hurricane season sales are temporary. On average hurricane landfalls only occur one out of every twelve months. That means that on average the housing market will be back to normal in less than six months!
Conclusion
The effects of hurricanes in the real estate sector are hard to predict and highly variable, which complicates real estate transactions during hurricane season. Whether you’re looking to buy a home without storm damage or you’re looking to sell your home in a hurricane-affected area, it can be difficult dealing with these hurricane related issues.