Housing Update for Quarter 1
We will see a shift from March to April. That much we know, but I do want to always be the voice of actual data. Here is our March Housing Update now that the Month has closed. As always, the stats below are for Single Family Homes only.
We officially set the all-time high for Median Sales price in March. Single Family Homes finished March at $319,000, up 6.3% from March of last year, and up 4.6% from the beginning of the year! Looking forward, I don’t see April having a DRAMATIC decrease in value, but we will see a swing down in our next statistic, home sales.
Our chart for Sold homes continues the trend it has for several years. We see dips in Q4/Q1, followed by a pickup. What I like to see here is our “bottom” for the 2019/2020 period is significantly HIGHER than the prior years. Our January low significantly higher than our Low from the year before. For March, we sold 2756 homes, and 7,529 homes in the Quarter. To compare to last year Q1, we sold 6,430 homes, a 17% stronger start to the year. Most likely, we will see a dip in Sales, but our healthy Q1 should help flatten the curve for the year.
A number I would expect to potentially go up would be our Homes for Sale and Months Supply. However, maybe not as much as people would bet. We anticipate a slowdown of sales, but at the same time, probably a similar slow down of NEW homes hitting the market. You can see from the Homes for Sale chart, we do have minimal inventory. Currently, there are only 6,384 homes available for sale. To give you a comparison, in June of last year, 9 short months ago, we had 10,181 homes available! Our inventory levels are low, and while the number of buyers out there may be waiting for the virus to pass, we are also seeing a lower level of sellers put a home on the market.
I liken this to the Holiday season. There usually are less buyers during this time, but the Buyers during this time are SERIOUS, and there is LESS competition for sellers; so if you need to sell, SELL! Do not wait. If you want/need to Buy, then BUY! You may have a great pick of opportunities.
Looking at the Months Supply of Homes, you’ll also see we had a slight up tick from last month, but compared to last year we are still very low. Comparing the movement of the Inventory Levels to Homes for Sale is a very similar looking chart!
Looking Ahead!
I expect sales to drop in terms of number of sales. However, I do also expect to see LESS new homes become available this month. We may have a retreat on the Median Home price, but I do not anticipate a large decrease. In fact, I would guess we see a relatively flat number; perhaps 1% low to 1% higher for April.
Lenders are continuing to Lend; Escrow Officers are closing transactions and we’re still here to help! What do you think will happen in April? Comment below!