Out With The Old, In With The New
The end of a year is always a good time to take a step back and review. The final 2016 Year In Review will be delivered by mid January when all final sales data comes in, but I wanted to make a couple of comments ahead of then.
2016 will be remembered for a lack of home inventory and the ability for our market to continue to surpass previous years sales. In fact, I have predicted that we would surpass 14,000 sales this year. As of December 31st, the MLS reported 13,951 closed transactions. There will certainly be an additional 50 closings that will be added to this number next week as real estate offices work to finalize all the month end and year end paperwork. This is especially impressive when you look at the number of homes for sale throughout the year. We have consistently been working with 10% fewer homes on the market and sellers have been in the drivers seat for all but two months of the year. 2016 is ending the year with 2,977 homes for sale and 4.3 months of inventory.
With that said, if you are a buyer, there is a window of opportunity right now as we are currently in a balanced market. If you are a home seller thinking about waiting until spring to list and sell, you should also know that right now you will have the most serious buyers looking now and you should have an adequate amount of inventory to choose from for your next home. Waiting until spring will mean that you will need to be making decisions quicker, most likely be in competition with other home buyers and if your home sells, you’d be well off to have a place to temporarily move to. In 2016, the most active months were April & May when there was fewer homes for sale than the number of homes waiting to close. The last thing to be aware of is that mortgage interest rates are finally on the rise. Expect to see close to 4 1/2% rates for 30 year mortgages by summer.
I’m often asked why my reports are different from other locally published sources. The simple answer is that I provide a snapshot in time at the end of each month. What this means is that I’m able to publish to my website right at the end of each month. In 2017 I will continue to publish a month end snapshot report here and it will be more concise and simplified. I will also focus on adding additional trend reports and forecasts based on previous month and previous year activity.
I always ask for suggestions for new reports each year. If you are looking for a general overview report that I can begin to produce, I will add it if it can be done and doesn’t require intense research. I have a lot of data going back to 2009 so I may have some information that is no longer available in the MLS.
~Les Sulgrove, Broker
VIA Group REALTORS
If you are interested in selling your home or purchasing a home, give me a call! I will help you determine your best strategy based on your local market data.
December 2016 End of Month Recap Reports
(Click on Thumbnail To Download/View Full Sized PDF)
December 2016 Year To Date Homes For Sale
December 2016 Year To Date Pending Transactions
December 2016 Year To Date Homes Sold
December 2016 Year To Date Balance of the Market