Ok….let’s talk numbers. The August numbers came out today for sales across the area so let’s see what it looks like. Also-if you would like to see the detailed report, click on the link on the home page of www.markmonge.com where it says Monthly Market Report.
The number of closed sales in Aug 2015 compared to Aug 2014 was down 4.1%. The number of homes pending, that is-homes that are under contract and have not closed yet-is down 11.5%. What we can take away from this is that the number of homes pending in July was down a little, which resulted in less closings in August. Much in the same way we can probably predict that the number of closed sales in Sept will probably be down as well due to the lower number of pending sales in August.
We are seeing a slow down in the number of showings in the higher price ranges. Some of this is seasonal, while some of this is tied to the corporate slow down and pullbacks in relocating employees. Homes above $500,000 saw a 6.6% decrease in sales in Aug compared to the same month last year. But in the $400K to $500K price range, there was an increase of 17.8% (86 homes compared to 73 homes). In the $300K to $400K range there was a 11.3% increase and a 9.9% increase in the $225K to $300K price range.
Looking at the number of homes on the market-it’s still lower than it has been. In Aug of 2013 there were 860 new homes listed. In Aug of 2014 there were 698 newly listed ( a decrease of 18.8%) and this Aug there were 726, which is an increase of 4%, but still 12% off of Aug 2013.
The Federal Reserve also voted yesterday that the economy was still a little too shaky to raise interest rates, at least right now, so they are staying put. However, they also indicated that they would likely still raise them yet this year. If you are a home buyer in the market now-you can take advantage of these rates for a little while longer while also capitalizing in the pull back in showings some sellers are experiencing.
