This week we will take a quick look at the April trends over the past 3 years and try to get an idea for where we are in the market currently.
The numbers below are reflective of the entire Realtracs MLS area and are comparing April to April. Additionally, it only includes single family homes, no commercial, no condos, no rentals, no multi-family.
One last parameter, the % I am going to report first are up or down for April of 2023 compared to April of 2022. Note that we were seeing rates start to climb in March of 2022. Many people thought maybe it was going to be temporary (happened in December of 2018. Since folks thought it might be temporary, we only saw a slight hesitation. The real shift happened a few months later when people realized that rates were going to stay up.
April 2023 Year of Year trends
New Listings DOWN 13%
Active Listing Inventory UP 133%
Under Contract Inventory DOWN 27%
Closings DOWN 31%
Average Sales Price DOWN 3%–Important to note that April of 2022 was UP 23% from April of 2021
List to close Days on Market Average UP 18%
Months of Supply 3.32 months, UP 147% (still very much a seller’s market, “even”, i.e. not a buyer or seller market, is 7 months supply)
Here’s the takeaway, all this volatility is actually accomplishing what it was intended to do. Our market is normalizing. We are seeing prices level out without tanking or evaporating all the gain that happened over the last few years. We are seeing inventory sit just a little longer. This gives buyers just a little more time to make a decision and perhaps a very small window to negotiate better terms. All that said, sellers are still in great shape as we haven’t lost much value and what we did lose was really hyper inflated anyway. Houses are still selling, people are still buying and the market is actually getting healthier.
Published May 15, 2023
