Posted on Jul 24th 2016

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 The number of for-sale listings described as 'fixer-uppers' has risen significantly since 2011, especially among high-priced homes in competitive markets.

Rising home prices and tough buyer competition may be giving sellers more flexibility to list their home for sale “as-is” without needing to fix it up.

We have identified the number of fixer-upper homes listed for sale beginning in 2011 and ending in 2015, and compared them to overall for-sale inventory trends.

 

Nationally, expensive fixer-uppers, or those priced within the top third of their markets, saw the biggest surge in inventory over the past five years, rising nearly 35 percent.

 

Conversely, affordably priced fixer-uppers, or those valued within the bottom tier, increased less than 3 percent.
 

So what’s happening?

There aren’t enough homes on the market to accommodate buyer demand in many U.S. metros. As a result, sellers have the luxury to list their home for sale “as-is” because they know it will likely still sell, even if it needs a little TLC.

 

For example, in Seattle, one of the nation’s hottest housing markets, for-sale inventory has decreased 10 percent over the past five years; however, fixer-upper listings increased 33 percent over the same time period.

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