Hi everybody, Mark here.

Happy March! It's been a year since lockdown, when we all went, what are we doing? I wanted to touch base and say:

I hope that you, your family, and your friends are all doing well and that everybody's stayed safe. I know this has been a really hectic time. I also wanted to come to you and let you know a little bit about what's going on in the market right now.

You’ve probably heard something about a lack of inventory and the panic that buyers are going through because they can't find a house, right? Let me do one thing - talk to you about the number of showings that are happening. If you've got friends or family who are in the market, and they're telling you:

There are up to 75 showings for some of these listings and there's no way I can compete with that.

So prior to the pandemic (2020) we were holding open houses. That meant we could have a two to three hour window and bring in as many people as possible to come through this new listing, and probably see four or five, maybe even 10 offers on those places. 

Once the pandemic hit, CDC guidelines and the state of Wisconsin said: no more open houses.

That made a lot of sense: safe, viable, those types of things. We were relegated to doing only 30 minute showings. Even with showings from Friday through Sunday, you have to get all 40 to 75 people through a home with only half an hour time slots. Your entire weekend is booked on these new listings with showings, but you're still only seeing five to 10 offers if the home is priced well. 

It's the same type of thing, but all of these people are making it sound like there's no homes out there. There's all these weird things going on in the market. What we do know is we do have a lack of inventory - we're down 30%.

• January of 2020 or 465 new listings in the Madison area

• January of 2021, there are only 330

• February of 2020, and there were 309 listings

• February of 2021, only 225 new listings

• Right now, there are less than 300 homes on the market in the Madison area.

That's a really low number. So if you look at an average market or a normal market, we probably have anywhere between 900 to 1100 homes on the market for people to choose from. We have so many buyers who want to move to the Madison area, right? It's a great place to live.

So that's a little bit about what's going on in the market. What's happening. Interest rates are still at an all-time low. So if you haven't refiled, please look into doing that because you can still get 15 years for under 2, OR 30 years for under three.

If you're looking to purchase, just know there are a couple of new strategies that we're using. If you or anybody else you know is looking to purchase, or if you're looking to sell, we could use the inventory.

I hope this finds you well, hope you're having a great day and I'm glad you stopped by.

Take care, everybody.

-Mark Gladue