We’re well into the spring selling season (May 1st is twelve days away), and soon the talking heads will be touting fewer sales this year, compared to 2015.
It is short-sighted though, because 2015 was a great year, statistically. When you consider that prices are still strong, and any softness in the market is at the high-end where hopefully sellers can endure, it’s hard to complain!
NSDCC Detached-Home Sales between March 1 – April 15
| Year | |||
| 2012 | |||
| 2013 | |||
| 2014 | |||
| 2015 | |||
| 2016 |
Whether the demand is getting more picky or just taking a breather, to still have 365 sales after a 40% price hike in four years is phenomenal.
Jim. Your opinion please. Plus $500/sf is mighty dear.
Are people buying higher quality but smaller or is it just prices following higher end as there is no lower end as people cannot move up?
The one constant is that sellers want more than the last guy got.
It makes for a steady 0.5% to 1% increase in prices per month during the selling season, with some flatness in the off-season.
Each buyer deals with it individually. Some stick with higher quality but compromise on size of house or yard or both. Others find a way to pay more to get everything they want.
A fascinating stat is how the low-end active listings haven’t budged since I started tracking the inventory in my four categories.
In the Under-$800,000 market the average LP/sf and average size of the house is almost identical to what it was when I started 2.5 years ago – high-$300s/sf and around 2,000sf. But there were 90+ of them for sale then, and today there are 35 for sale.
https://www.bubbleinfo.com/2016/04/18/inventory-watch-58/#more-61174
Prices might be more stagnant than they feel.
Because the good ones sell so quick – it feels like a fast market. But if it’s only going up 0.5% per month, prices ain’t that fast.