Hello and welcome to another market update. The July numbers are in and we are still marching forward on the road to recovery for our local market.
New listings remain at around 1500 per month. This is a plateau we have been at most of this year. This has gone a long way in the face of increased sales with keeping our overall inventory levels down from last year.
Sales are up another 9.5% from last month and up 12% from this time last year. The increase in sales has helped to stabilize home prices which have increased about 3.5% from last month but are still down 6-8% from last year.
We still have 4662 active listings in the resale market so there is plenty of competition out there. For my seller that have heard me say “we are in a price war combined with a beauty contest” that still hold true.
I started warning my buyers in late spring that the market was changing and most of the screaming deals are in fact off the table, but it will still take us a couple more years to bring the market back. By back I mean to a healthy market not the rapid equity we saw a few years ago. There are still going to be to many foreclosures and short sales over the next 2-3 years that will make this market recovery a long steady climb.
Good news for sellers: prices have stabilized at 300K and below and inventories have dropped at 200K and below.
Good news for buyers: due to inventory levels at 300K and above, anyone wanting to move up to a larger home, nicer area, ect will be in great shape to do so over the next 6 months at least. As employment numbers change for the better the move up buyers 300-500K will again take over the market and this opportunity will go away.
Thanks for stopping by. I welcome your input and/or questions. Till next time take care.
