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No Tricks But Plenty Of Treats
The month of October bucked tradition by seeing quite a bit of listing and subsequent sale activity. Looking back to 2014, September and October are the first two months that traditionally show a downturn in listing inventory. This year was different. Inventory in September continued to rise giving late season buyers fresh inventory to choose from. Word spread quickly and we experienced a mini burst of home sales. The dip in inventory you see is where buyers ate up new listings. This in turn spurred more sellers to come off the fence and inventory began to build. As of this report the levels have started to turn downward again.
Monthly Market Snapshot as of October 31st
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Virtually all of the bonus activity in October was in the resale category. New construction Months of Inventory remain in the 12 month range.
2018 Year Trend Reports
Active – Pending – Sold – Balance of the Market
Compared To 2017
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This graphic tells the story best of a busy October. The dip in Active Inventory levels and the bubble up in Pending transactions are a true sign of buyers buying at a fast pace. The YTD Closed transactions are slightly behind the same time last year but with this last months mini surge, I am confident that Sold transactions will catch up to last year in November and early December.
Home Inventory and Pending Sales Compared Over Time
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This graphic allows you to see how Home Inventory and Pending Sales both compare to different points in time from a week a back to as far as 9 years back.
Months of Inventory
Buyer Pool and by Price Point
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Yellow indicates a Sellers Market. Red is for a Buyers Market. Blue represents a balanced market. As you can see, the Des Moines real estate market is clearly split between a Buyers and Sellers market. If a home is listed for sale under $300,000, odds are good that in the near future these homes will sell quickly. Anything above $300,000 is going to take longer but the flip side is that buyers for these homes will have ample inventory to choose from, especially in the $600-$700,000 price point.
~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.