Know Your Housing Market and its Advantages

One of the blogs that I regularly follow is Strong Towns (@StrongTowns). I’ve seen the founder, Charles Marohn, speak in public before. I’m even currently reading his latest book, Confessions of a Recovering Engineer. Although I don’t buy into everything he pushes in his writings, there are many ideas I can subscribe to.

Last May he wrote about the current housing market. Or more so the insanity that is the current housing market. Twenty years ago I would watch shows on HGTV about people buying houses in California for absolutely insane prices. The numbers were just absurd. But those numbers are now rampant in most metro areas throughout the rest of the United States.

His post, “Buying a house? Here’s why you should consider a small town.” is a good read. He dives into the numbers of the current housing market and how we are in the midst of another “housing bubble”. Marohn provides a convincing numerical argument as to why people should buy rural.

This Strong Towns article is a good analysis as to why purchasing a house in a rural community makes monetary sense. You should know these numbers yourself. But not just the numbers in Marohn’s article. It’s more important to know the numbers in relation to your own community.

You need to know the numbers for the housing market in your community. But don’t just look up the average price point for all of the owner-occupied housing in town. Know the price points for each level of housing from entry-level, to the more executive-level housing. Look into the numbers on rental housing, including subsidized and market rate. Also, look at the available supply of each housing type.

But don’t stop there, look at the same housing numbers for the nearest city, the nearest metropolitan area. How do the numbers of your housing market stack up to those areas?

Memorize these numbers, be able to speak to them with ease. When a potential new business starts sniffing about town, this will prove valuable. When they ask about the housing market, these numbers will be valuable. Much better than just saying that the housing is “cheaper”. Knowing these numbers in detail, showing confidence that your community has a more attractive housing market, is invaluable.

A confident and well-prepared salesperson always sells more.