The last several months of speculation about lower inflation and interest rate cuts have been wrong. Inflation has remained stubbornly high preventing the FED from lowering rates and therefore keeping mortgage rates consistently between 6.5% to 7.0%.
Despite that news, our local market is remaining resilient. Demand is in line with last year with sales moderating. In fact, for the last 4 months pending sales have actually increased. Meanwhile the number of showings this year has outpaced last year by double digits. This past week showings were up 13% over last year for the same week and this has been the trend all year with few exceptions. Buyers are coming to terms with the idea that mortgage
rates are going to remain higher for longer than they originally expected.
Inventory continues to rise giving buyers more options. We had 1000 more homes on the market in Feb than we did last year, and 2.5 times the inventory we had in Feb 2022.
Despite higher inventory prices are rising. Last month we hit a new all-time median sales price, up over 11% from last year. I expect this trend to continue for a least the next few months.
The market is also speeding up as it typically does this time of year. Half of all homes are selling in just 14 days.
Here are the numbers (vs LY):
Closings: DOWN 1%
Inventory: UP 35%
Median Sales Price: UP 11%
Pending Sales: UP 11%
Looking forward to working with you when you decide to buy or sell.
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