Here is a statistical snap shot of the NWA housing market to start 2023! All of information was pulled from the Northwest Arkansas Board of Realtors MLS, comparing Jan 2022 to Jan 2023.
You ask, "What do all those numbers really mean...?"
In a nutshell this means, the NWA market is slowing down from the red-hot market of the last few years. Sale prices are still trending up slightly. That is, the average cost of a house has continued to increase (total sale price and average $/SQFT). However, the total volume of sales (both by count and dollars) are down more than 30% since Jan 2022.
Buyer competition is down (evident in the decrease in total sales and the months of inventory on market), but buyers are still buying! Days on market still remain relatively low, the number of expired listings saw almost no change, and the final sales prices are still 98% of the original list price; meaning sellers are not (at this point) having to drop the price significantly to find a buyer.
One other note, while the percent increase in the months of inventory is a little scary (133% increase), that is not necessarily a sign of doom. Generally speaking, 7 months of inventory is still a "seller's market". As a rule of thumb, when we hit the 12+ months of inventory on the market is when a seller's market starts turning into a buyer's market.
In other words, the market is changing, but sales are definitely still happening!
If you have any questions about the market, reach out! We're happy to talk with you!