February 2017
The start of the year ushered in a wave of good news about a hot stock market,
higher wages and an active home sales environment. At the same time, housing
prices have continued to rise, and the low inventory situation and affordability
crunch has been particularly hard on first-time buyers struggling to get into the
market. Nevertheless, buyer activity is easily outpacing seller activity in much of the
country, culminating in relatively quick sales and low supply. Demand definitely
remained strong this month.
New Listings were up 20.3 percent to 1,511. Pending Sales increased 16.0 percent
to 1,096. Inventory grew 2.1 percent to 4,190 units.
Prices moved higher as Median Sales Price was up 2.8 percent to $154,250. Days
on Market decreased 14.3 percent to 84 days. Months Supply of Inventory was
down 7.0 percent to 4.0 months, indicating that demand increased relative to
supply.
Unemployment has reached pre-recession levels, and Americans remain optimistic
about finding quality employment. This matters because job growth and higher
paychecks fuel home purchases. Unfortunately, that won't matter for potential
buyers if price appreciation outpaces income growth and if mortgage rates continue
their upward trend. Sellers are getting a generous number of offers in this market.
The worry for sellers then becomes that there will not be a generous number of
homes to choose from when they become buyers.
Information courtesy of CMLS*
