Housing Supply Overview
Housing supply has continued to struggle to replenish itself in most markets across the U.S., which is contributing to an overall decline in sales. Yet low inventory is not the only slowing factor in a buying environment with historically high prices. For the 12-month period spanning April 2018 through March 2019, Pending Sales in the Western Upstate region were down 2.1 percent overall. The price range with the largest gain in sales was the $200,001 to $300,000 range, where they increased 8.3 percent.
The overall Median Sales Price was up 5.4 percent to $174,900. The property type with the largest price gain was the Condos segment, where prices increased 9.6 percent to $133,750. The price range that tended to sell the quickest was the $100,001 to $150,000 range at 95 days; the price range that tended to sell the slowest was the $300,001 and Above range at 133 days.
Market-wide, inventory levels were up 7.7 percent. The property type that gained the most inventory was the Condos segment, where it increased 45.2 percent. That amounts to 4.3 months supply for Single-Family homes and 5.8 months supply for Condos.
Monthly Indicators
In addition to the quandary of ongoing housing price increases and affordability concerns in many U.S. markets, the first quarter of 2019 saw a fair share of adverse weather as well. Sales totals were mixed across the nation and sometimes dependent on what was a persistent wintry mix, especially in the Great Plains, Midwest and Northeast. Meanwhile, new listings and total homes for sale have been trending lower in year-over-year comparisons in many areas, and last year’s marks were already quite low.
New Listings were down 4.4 percent to 735. Pending Sales decreased 35.1 percent to 352. Inventory grew 7.7 percent to 1,930 units.
Prices moved higher as Median Sales Price was up 6.1 percent to $174,950. Days on Market decreased 6.6 percent to 114 days. Months Supply of Inventory was up 9.8 percent to 4.5 months, indicating that supply increased relative to demand.
The Federal Reserve recently announced that no further interest rate hikes are planned for 2019. Given the fact that the federal funds rate has increased nine times over the past three years, this was welcome news for U.S. consumers, which carry an approximate average of $6,000 in revolving credit card debt per household. Fed actions also tend to affect mortgage rates, so the pause in rate hikes was also welcome news to the residential real estate industry.
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