A Divided Market
The fracturing of the market continues apace. I’ve blogged multiple times about the divide between the Average days on the market and the Median days and what that means for you as both buyers and sellers.
The Median continues to drop in our region averaging just a bit over 8 days for April while the average is at 37. This demonstrates forcefully that if your property is priced right, staged and marketed aggressively you will not be on the market long. As a buyer when you find these homes you don’t have a ton of time for cogitation! Quick decision making is mandatory.
For that big of a delta between the Mean and the Median we clearly have a good chunk of homes that are languishing for significant numbers of days. Home sellers, if you have had at least 15 qualified purchasers though your home (shown by and thus vetted by your agent or a cooperating broker) and you don’t have a contract you either have a price problem or a major functional issue you need to address.
The market also continues to be divided along price points. Above 700K is much slower for Days on the Market as well as the numbers of showings so have different expectations as a seller if you are there than if you are at an entry level price point.
April sales were up 15.6% over last year and inventory remains below where we would all like to see it. In that realm our consensus as a group is trending optimistic though as we do see more late spring/summer inventory coming down the pike so you buyers, don’t get discouraged!
As always give me a call about any topics that are even remotely related to real estate.
It’s a good life.
Chris