It’s mid-October, but the Fall Market showed up a month ago!

Folks, the data is speaking, and all the anecdotal evidence we’re seeing here at Gateway is confirming it.  We normally see things slow down the first or second week of November with the holidays on the horizon, but this year, it looks like it showed up in September.  After 4 weeks in a row of declining inventory, we reversed course and went up this week by a whopping 11 homes to 3,655 units.  For some perspective, that is up 50% from last year, and 24% from the 5-year average, but if we go back to the last year pre-pandemic of 2019, we still have a long way to go to get to those levels.

Sales for the last 7 days are down 11%, from 555 to 490, which translates to a 1.9 months supply on the market.  Regular readers of my blog will notice the gradual creep up in this important marker.  Closed sales in September are up 8% year over year (yea), but that’s down 10% from the previous month (boo).  Confusing isn’t it?  That’s kind of the point.  As this market continues to evolve from a stone cold sellers market to a more balanced one, knowing the weekly shifts in market trends that are quite area specific will be crucial to a best outcome on the buyer and seller side.

Sellers, we need to talk about previous assumptions about prepping for the market.  In some instances the prep will need to be more robust, in some however no longer worth it.  On the buyers side it’s a good time to strike on contingencies and properties that have been on the market for a while, but also to be careful of cuing the deal up front with absurd terms.

One last set of data, especially for you home sellers.  Prices are still up month over month, though less than 1%.  The median days on market is up to 17, and the man is 27, so realign your expectations.  You’ve probably been hearing lots of national news about price cuts, and in other parts of the country they have been prevalent, but around here a mere 13% have done so.  It’s an evolution, not a sea change.

Bottom line is that there are opportunities for buyers and sellers both in the coming months before the end of the year who are savvy and working with an informed and aggressive broker.  So reach out to me and we’ll put together a fall plan for you!

It’s a good life.

Chris