Over the last 50 years, home sales during elections have been slower than normal.
"Over the last 13 election cycles, there's about a 15% decline in total home sales during the election month, but there's an equally fast rebound," said Realtor Kayla Dalton with Dickson Realty. "Basically, people don't like change, and that's whether you're a buyer, seller or investor. People tend to make emotional decisions during this time instead of rational ones, and a lot of people want to to wait it out and see what happens, because elections bring a lot of uncertainty and a lot of change."
Home prices in Northern Nevada remain at near-record highs, and interest rates, near all-time lows. And, there's an inventory shortage.
"At any given time over the last seven months, there hasn't been more than 500 homes on the market, active and available," Dalton said. "And there's been far more buyer demand than that, so that has really driven our market and prices up, and the lower interest rates are fueling our buyer demand right now."
Most homes aren't staying on the market very long these days, and are going at or above asking price, but the elections could provide a bit of a boost for potential buyers.
"This could be your small window of opportunity where you could snatch something and be in a less competitive situation," Dalton said. "You might get a little bit of a better price, might get to negotiate a little bit, I think it could be a good opportunity for a lot of buyers right now."
She says there were about 1,200 to 1,400 local homes on the market at the same time last year.
