As we dive into the heart of the Spring selling season, we may start seeing some negative housing headlines. They will be misleading. Employment figures are positive, and mortgage rates are extremely low, but both March listings (-.2%) and year to date listings (-1.7%) are showing declines over those of 2015, as are closed sales in March (-1.4%). What’s happening? First time buyers remain “careful”, and year over year inventory levels have decreased 27.8%!
What about condos?
Some quick condo facts provided by the Carolina Regional Realtor Association:
- Pending sales of condos are up 22.0% in the first quarter with the largest gains (+46.7%) from those listings above $300,001
- Average list to close on all condos dropped (10.3%) to 104 days
- Average days on market before contract fell 25.4% to 53 days
- Median sales price for a condo increased 4.6% to $152,000
- % of original list price received increased to 96.1% in the first quarter
- Inventory of condos For Sale shrank 27.4%
- Months supply of condos fell 40% to 2.1 months
It is clearly a Sellers’ market!