And let's look a bit closer at the month to month trajectory...

Looking afresh at how this year stacks up to prior years...

This has been the fastest (though not by a huge amount) start to the year that we've seen in a while.  The 1,017 home sales through the first three quarters of the year surpasses sales seen during the same timeframe in each of the prior four years.  So, it seems we may see another year of 1,300+ home sales in our area.

Zooming out -- looking at a rolling twelve months of market data -- we find a slow and steady increase in sales prices over the past year, and a slow and steady increase in the pace of home sales.  All indications are that this could / might / should continue on into the remainder of 2019 and potentially 2020.

Taking one more look (above) at value trends we see that the median sales price of detached homes was a190K five years ago -- and has risen to $240K today.  That's a healthy increase in home values, though with annual increases of 2% to 7%, it doesn't seem that the overall increases are as unsustainable as they were during the 2003-2007 market boom.

This (October) could be the last strong month of contract activity for a while.  Above you'll note that contract signing slowed quite a bit between November and February -- and I expect we'll see something similar this year.  The 100 contracts signed in September 2019 was on pace with the 102 seen last September.

The new norm seems to be fewer than 300 homes on the market at any given time.  Over the past 11 months there have always been fewer than 300 homes for sale -- though no fewer than 255.  This is a far cry from where inventory levels were a few years ago, but perhaps this is where we'll be staying for a while.  Buyers don't have many options at any given time, and yet, we're on track for a record setting year of home sales.

If buyers are sad about declines in inventory levels, they certainly aren't sad about declining interest rates!  A year ago, the average 30-year interest rate was 4.72% and now it's down over a full percentage to 3.64%.  This certainly makes it an affordable time to lock in a housing payment.

1. The full PDF of my market report has even more data for your reading pleasure.  Feel free to download it for a deeper look at local market trends.
    
   
2. If you have questions about the market that I don't regularly cover in these monthly reports, feel free to email me.
    
3. Yes, sales will be slowing as we roll into Novvember and December -- but some of you may still need to or want to sell your home.  If so, let's chat sooner than later about timing, preparations for your house, pricing within the current market and more.  Call (540-578-0102) or email me and we can set up a time to meet to chat.
    
4. If you are planning to buy in the near future -- again -- be ready to be patient and then to ACT QUICKLY!  :-)  Make it a bit easier for yourself by knowing the market, knowing the process, knowing your buying power, and closely monitoring new listings!

That's all for now.  Happy October!