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Median Sales Price
I use the median closed price for homes to show the growth in value that properties in our areas have experienced. Medians work best because they are not skewed by anomalies like averages are, and I used closed price rather than list price to provide true market values, rather than what the seller might hope their home will sell for!
Last month, our median sales priced increased up to $261,000 from the $241,000 that was in February.
Closed Price to Original Price Ratio
This graph is a great indicator of demand in our market. It shows us what percentage of the original asking price (before any reductions) houses are selling for. If a house sells for the exact asking price, it will have a ratio of 100.0%.
Last month, we had a 97.5% ratio, which is 1% higher than it was in February. As we enter the spring market where transactions start to pick up, and as sellers continue to adapt to new market norms, it isn’t surprising to see that sellers are getting just about what they are asking from their properties.
Median Days to Sell
Days to sell really means days to go under contract, aka days until the seller has accepted a written offer to purchase for the property. Like the last graph, this helps us measure supply vs demand. I am again using median rather than average so that the outliers don’t skew our numbers.
In the past, 30+ days on market was perfectly normal. Since demand picked up several years ago, we have been spoiled with record fast sales. They have been slowing down ever so slightly, and in February, the median days to sell was up to 23. Last month, however, the median dropped to just 15 days. We are reaching similar levels of demand as before interest rates began rising, and properties are still selling fast.
Number of New Listings
This graph represents the number of properties listed for sale over the past 3 years. This statistic helps us identify what the number of new inventory is, since supply levels directly affect demand and prices.
We had a major influx of listings last month to meet the rising demand of buyers as we enter the spring market. 447 properties were listed in March, compared to just 298 in February or 304 in January. Despite a increase in people wanting to sell, we can see there is at least an equal number of buyers ready to purchase, since prices went up last month, and days on market and price drops went down.
Number of Transactions
Here we see a visualization of the number of homes that made it through the listing process and ended up being sold to a buyer ready to call it home.
If the previous statistics didn’t give you confidence in our market, last month our transactions increased 29% from February to 325.
Months of Inventory
This final graph tracks an equation that we use to measure the relationship between inventory and demand in the market. This statistic essentially says “If we get zero new listings for sale until every house currently listed has sold, at the current rate houses are selling, it would take x months before we run out of inventory.”
In March we had 3 months worth of inventory, which shows that there is still plenty of buyers to pair to the increase in inventory we’ve seen. If this month continues off of last months trajectory, we could be looking at a competitive market with just 2 months of inventory soon.
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