HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — When it comes to the housing market, we're currently experiencing a seller's market because there is so much demand for realty right now and many looking to sell their home are selling to property investors, who in turn will rent out these homes.
This has its perks of course but it also creates some issues.
"We have a lot of investors buying here that are not necessarily here. They're in other states such as California," said Local Broker Associate, Holly McDonald.
These investors, who are buying housing here locally, are in a lot of cases, not local themselves.
They're taking that rent money out of the local economy here and putting it to work in a completely different community.
"We would love to see a lot more sellers sell to owner-occupants because we'd like for that money to stay in our community but if you have investors that are buying properties here, that are living in another area of the country, then they're taking their rents and they're spending in their area, in their market," said 2022 President of Huntsville Area Association of REALTORS/ValleyMLS, Issac Winkles.
The issue with investors buying these homes is that in the current market we're living in, there's already a shortage of homes... This type of transaction is impacting a particular group of home buyers, first-time homebuyers.
"They're buying up our inventory, that is actually great inventory and price points for our first-time homebuyers," said McDonald.
Often times these investors and investment companies have a lot more cash to shell out, especially when it comes to bidding wars, where there is a winner and unfortunately, a loser... The winner usually being the investor with more money of course... But there are options for local and first-time homebuyers.
"Really, once they see that they're losing, you know on the offers and making competitive offers, is going the new construction route because a lot of our builders are not selling to investors, which is really helping, and a lot of them will only focus on one offer at a time so they're not doing the bidding war, which is really helping that market there for our first-time homebuyers," said McDonald.