Housing Supply Overview
A limited supply of existing homes for sale, along with an increase in new homes on the market, have helped boost demand for new single-family homes this year. Monthly new-home sales increased 9.6% as of last measure, marking the highest rate of new-home sales in a year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Single-family housing starts increased for the second consecutive month, rising 2.7% to a seasonally adjusted 861,000 units as of last measure, while single-family housing completions were up 2.4% month-over-month. For the 12-month period spanning May 2022 through April 2023, Pending Sales in the Western Upstate Association of REALTORS® region decreased 12.8 percent overall. The price range with the largest pending sales gain was the $750,001 to $1,000,000 range, where sales increased 14.4 percent.
The overall Median Sales Price improved 10.9 percent to $275,000. The property type with the largest gain was the Condos segment, where prices increased 15.9 percent to $217,268. The price range that tended to sell the quickest was the $150,000 and Below range at 46 days. The price range that tended to sell the slowest was the $1,000,001 and Above range at 69 days.
Market-wide, inventory levels increased 82.9 percent. The property type with the largest gain was the Single-Family Homes segment, where the number of properties for sale rose 93.8 percent. That amounts to 3.0 months of inventory for Single-Family Homes and 3.2 months of inventory for Condos.
Monthly Indicators
U.S. existing-home sales declined 2.4 percent month-over-month as of last measure, according to the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), reversing February’s sales gain of 14.5%. Fluctuations in mortgage interest rates have caused buyers to pullback, with pending sales dropping 5.2% month-over-month. Meanwhile, the median existing-home sales price declined for the second month in a row, falling 0.9% nationally from the same time last year, the largest year-over-year decline since January 2012, according to NAR.
New Listings were down 8.6 percent to 641. Pending Sales decreased 9.8 percent to 505. Inventory grew 82.9 percent to 1,456 units.
Prices moved higher as Median Sales Price was up 11.3 percent to $289,900. Days on Market increased 52.4 percent to 64 days. Months Supply of Inventory was up 106.7 percent to 3.1 months, indicating that supply increased relative to demand.
Housing inventory remains tight nationwide, with only 980,000 units available for sale heading into April, a 5.4% increase from one year earlier, although the number of homes for sale is down compared to the same period in 2019, prior to the pandemic. The lack of existing inventory continues to impact home sales, and with only 2.6 months’ supply of homes at last measure, competition for available properties remains strong, especially in certain price categories, with multiple offers occurring on about a third of properties, according to NAR.