Buying a Home in Tacoma in 2021
So you want to move to Tacoma in 2021?
If so, this is a great place to start your research. In this blog post, we take a look at the current Tacoma real estate market, we’ll look at area trends, housing forecasts, and other home buying essentials.
Tacoma is an excellent spot to look for a new home in 2021. What we’ve seen over the last few years is that many buyers who would be unable to afford a home in other bigger cities on the west coast like Seattle, Portland and San Francisco have started looking at Tacoma for more affordable home prices.
What many buyers like about Tacoma is that is close enough to Seattle to commute to and from every day for work, but its home prices are a lot more affordable. This is one of the reasons why Tacoma’s real estate market is so hot right now. Buyers are able to find excellent career opportunities in the greater Seattle area, but save a little cash by living in more affordable city like Tacoma.
Is it a Good Time to Buy a Home in Tacoma in 2021?
Now that we’re halfway into 2021, many folks shopping for homes are asking if it’s a good time to buy a home in Tacoma? It’s easy to see the crazy Tacoma real estate market statistics with homes selling in 5-6 days at 5-10% over asking price and feel apprehensive.
We fully understand the worries that many people have but like to look at every angle of the market. Here’s the question we often pose to folks who are unsure: How much might a new house in Tacoma cost you if you wait a year? As of today, home prices in Tacoma are expected to rise quite a bit through 2021 (between 9-13%), just as they did in all of Pierce County in 2020 (15%).
According to an article posted by the Seattle Times recently, the city of Tacoma is one of the hottest real estate markets in the entire country. With an extremely limited inventory of homes in Pierce County overall and the housing prices rapidly increasing, if you buy a home in Tacoma later as opposed to earlier, you’ll likely pay a good amount more. How much more? Well, that totally depends on how long you wait. Let’s look at some numbers to get a better idea.
Let’s say our example home price in Tacoma in 2021 is $475,000. If that home price increases just 10% in the next year, then the projected price of that same home in Tacoma in 2022 would be $522,500. That’s a potential increase of $47,500 year over year. If you bought your home today, that would be equity in you’ve built into your home. If you wait, that’s a LOT more debt and a couple hundred more dollars added to your monthly payment.
What is Tacoma’s Real Estate Market Like?
The Tacoma real estate market is extremely competitive right now, partly due to an inventory shortage of homes for sale. According to the NWMLS, Zillow, Redfin and many other sources, Tacoma is one of the fastest moving housing markets in the whole nation right now, with houses selling in under a week.
In Pierce county (where Tacoma is located) housing prices increased 15% in 2020, and are expected to continue rising at roughly the same rate over the next year. The majority of Tacoma homes and condos sell within a few days of being listed, and the typical home found a buyer in just 6 days.
How to Buy a Home in Tacoma?
For most buyers looking in Tacoma, this all might sound a bit overwhelming, especially for first time home buyers who are new to the local real estate market. The good new is that even in a tight real estate market like this one, there are a ton of strategies that we employ to increase your chances of landing an offer on the home you’re interested in purchasing. These strategies are what make having an awesome local real estate agent like Laura who is familiar with the Tacoma market so necessary.
Another big part of winning an offer in a competitive market is solid financing. If you’re thinking about buying a home in Tacoma in 2021, you will absolutely want to make sure you have your finances in order before you start looking at homes. What does that mean? Well, for cash buyers, this means having all of the money in the bank, with current bank statements to prove the funds are available. For buyers who are using a traditional mortgage loan, this means getting a pre-approval (not a pre-qualification) by a mortgage lender before even looking at homes. There’s a few reasons why we suggest these things. The first reason is that with homes selling in under a week, if you don’t have your financing locked in, you will not have the time to get financing done before a competing offer is accepted. In a hot real estate market like Tacoma, almost every seller will want to know 100% that you have your financing lined up, so the more we can do to show them you’re a great buyer, the better our odds are of landing the home.
If you haven’t already talked to someone about financing, we always recommend speaking with several lenders and exploring your options. We’re happy to offer suggestions for some amazing local lenders who have helped our previous clients.
The best way to get the ball rolling on buying a home in Tacoma in 2021 is to get connected with a real estate agent and setup an in-person or online consultation to meet and go over the best plan and strategy to meet you real estate goals. You can message our REALTOR & founder Laura Anderson here and she will help you through the home buying process.
