Home Sales Slow Slightly in September But Prices Still On The Rise

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 --