Before we dive into this month's market report, check out this featured home in Stone Spring Village by visiting 1520AppleRidgeCourt.com.

Now, on to our local real estate market -- I just published my most recent monthly market report, and as usual, you can read on for an overview, download the full report as a PDF or tune in to my monthly video overview of our local housing market...

VIDEO OVERVIEW:  Click here to watch (and listen) to my overview of the market.

As shown above...

Looking backwards a bit -- the crazy months of sales we saw in June and July of this year were a bit unusual -- way out of the norm.  The slower months of sales seen in August and September were much more "normal" -- even if a bit slower than usual.

Two years ago was a rock star of a year of real estate sales.  After only 1,125 home sales in 2015 -- the local market saw a huge increase to 1,313 home sales in 2016.  And then -- 2017 -- darn, we slipped a bit.  It's hard to say at this point where 2018 will fit into the mix.  I am guessing we'll beat last year's 1,261 home sales -- but probably won't make it all the way up to 2016 levels.

So -- as shown above with a green line -- sales prices have sort of been escalating a bit lately.  Less than a year ago we had just cleared a $200K median sales price -- and now we're way up to $212K.  Hmmm -- doesn't seem sustainable.  What gives?  Read on.

If we dial it back a bit and just look at single family homes (not duplexes, condos, townhouses -- all of which are prime real estate investor targets) we see a much (!!) more modest increase in the median sales price.  An increase from $225K to $229K over a one year period seems to be a much more reasonable increase in the local median sales price -- and one that seems like it could be sustainable.  This calms my nerves a bit after having seen that sharp rise in the overall median sales price.

So -- how's the market, you might ask?  Pretty balanced?  Not at all!  There are a steady flow of buyers in the local market -- and an ever smaller group of sellers.  We desperately need some new sellers in the market -- preferably who aren't also buying -- which often will mean we need to see some new construction.

Looking ahead, we might see a bit of a pop in October home sales after all!  September contracts were strong -- and markedly higher than last September.  In fact, contracts over the past year (1316) were a good bit higher than the previous 12 months (1256).  October sales figures might look better than expected!

And here is that inventory issue - visualized slightly differently.  Today's buyers have 18% fewer choices as compared to a year ago -- and 39% fewer choices as compared to two years ago!  What is a buyer to do these days? 

I'll pause there, for now.  As usual, you can download the full report as a PDF, or tune in to my monthly video overview of our local housing market

And a few tips for anyone thinking of buying or selling soon --