MACON, Ga. — Some Central Georgians say if there's ever a time to sell a house, it's now, but buying a house may not be as fast or easy.
For the past few months, Anya Turpin has been searching for a new home for her family. She said it's been very competitive.
“They've been strong offers. We went over asking price on all three of the homes, and still two of them we did not get,” said Turpin.
Turpin is now days away from closing on a place in Perry. She just put her current home up for sale, and is expecting the selling process to go much differently.
“I’ve sold multiple homes before, and this is definitely a new experience just in how aggressive everything is right now.”
Currently, Central Georgia real estate is a seller's market.
According to Mid-Georgia MLS, a Macon real estate agency, the number of single-family homes sold rose 12%, while the number of new listings dropped more than 4% from 2019 to 2020.
“If you're looking to sell a home, now's the time to do it, but you better have a house to move into,” said Amanda Shaw, a realtor for Flicking & Company Commercial Real Estate.
Shaw said the market isn't always like this.
“There's usually hundreds of hundreds of houses to choose from, but lately, as soon as a house gets listed, within days there's multiple offers on it well above selling price,” said Shaw.
She said low mortgage rates create a high demand to buy homes, which allows sellers to bump the price. Especially, with low inventory.
“It's really a seller's market right now, with the interest rate being under 3% and there's nothing on the market as far as houses go.”
Turpin gave some advice for anyone interested in going through the selling and buying process.
“It's a very complex time to buy a house right now, but if you're thinking about selling, I would say, ‘Absolutely, this is an incredible time to be a seller.’”
The National Association of Realtors says they expect the average home price to drop by about 3% this year from 2020.