Your Home and Snow

It’s getting so that s-n-o-w is a four letter word here in the Maryland suburbs.

It has been my experience that the DC Metro area gets two kinds of snow:

1. There is the snow that comes and leaves about 1″ to 3″. It freaks everybody out. They run to the store and there are school closings. However, it melts in a day and everyone goes back to normal.  There’s a little shoveling to do but not much. This usually hits about once or twice a year and they are far enough apart that they don’t cripple the city.
2. There is the epic snow.  We call this Snowmageddon or the Snowpocalypse or some other name appropriate for a snow that dumps about 3′ to 5′ on us and really does tie things up for a few days. This comes once every 5 to 7 years and while it’s a pain in the patootie it’s also something people know doesn’t happen much.

This year the record cold with day after day in single digit temps combined with a couple of snowstorms spaced about a week or two apart has really put this area out of sorts.

No one wants to go outside, if they can help it. Some school closings have resulted from the cold as well as the snow. Of course, the snow isn’t cooperating, either.  Just as the streets are cleared and the driveways are shoveled out, it snows one more time. It’s like, “Stop, already!”

Sure. Snow is pretty and the kids love it for the first little while. Lots of people don’t mind being off work unless you really need t get to work to make some money to pay the rent or mortgage or pay for the groceries.  Then it’s a really pain and a major inconvenience.

How Snow And Cold Affect Home Sales

If you listen to the news at all, you’ll have heard that retail sales were down for the month of December (January numbers aren’t out quite yet). The people who put out such numbers blame the cold. You many have also heard that home sales are down.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said several factors are working against buyers. “Unusually disruptive weather across large stretches of the country in December forced people indoors and prevented some buyers from looking at homes or making offers,” he said. “Home prices rising faster than income is also giving pause to some potential buyers, while at the same time a lack of inventory means insufficient choice. Although it could take several months for us to get a clearer read on market momentum, job growth and pent-up demand are positive factors.”

— www.realtor.org

The fact of the matter is that as cold as it is and as snowy as it has been, there are not a lot of people out there looking at houses to buy.  Sure. There are a few hearty souls. Even in the worst conditions there are people looking for homes because they have a limited time frame in order to make a decision. There are also people who are in the middle of the home buying process that need to get inspections and appraisals and the like out of the way.

By and large, most people are not out there with their Realtors opening lockboxes. My guess is they won’t be out until the weather warms up and the streets are a little safer to navigate.

That may be a good thing.  Pent up demand — the desire to buy a home but not being able to — will have an outlet. Home buyers who can qualify for a mortgage will be coming out of their winter caves looking for a home. The Spring market, which is normally pretty robust, will be a bit more robust this year.

Hopefully, the weather will be nice.

via:http://mdsuburbanhomes.com/2014/02/16/home-snow/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheMdSuburbsOfDC+%28The+MD+Suburbs+of+DC%29#.UxGJAeOSwpk