Spring is here, and more activity is happening! Here's the latest numbers for the NWA market.
The total number of sales by dollars and by volume are both up 20%+ from February. The number of closed transactions increased by almost 200 sold properties, accounting for the $75M increase in overall dollars of sales.
It was slightly surprising to see the months of inventory lower from the prior month. That’s a sign there are still plenty of buyers out there closing on properties. Even though new listings are up 20%+, the number of buyers is keeping pace.
While median days to sell increased again, this is not necessarily surprising as the market returns to a more typical timeline for listing to close. 70 days to sell is still historically low. If there were drastic signs the market was flipping to a buyer’s market, we would expect to see months of inventory increasing, the ratio of sale price to original list price decreasing repeatedly over several months, and the number of active listings increase much more than 1.3% from last month. This indicate we are still in a seller’s market.
The median sales price and price per SQFT inched higher in March as well. To illustrate the pace home values have increased in the NWA area, I looked at the data over the last 5 years for two distinct categories: 1) number of properties sold UNDER $200K, and 2) number of properties sold OVER $500K.
#1 For properties sold under $200K, in March 2018 there were 544 residential properties sold. Compared that to March 2023 there are only 83 sold under $200K. That’s 6.5 time FEWER homes available. Meaning the buyers in the “under $200K price range” are competing over fewer and fewer house. This is most impactful for first-time home buyers and lower income buyers trying to participate in home ownership.
#2 In the same 5-year time frame, March 2018 had 41 residential properties sold over $500K. Whereas in March 2023, there were 183 properties over $500K. That means 4 times MORE properties sold over a half million dollars in just a 5-years span. This price point is often buyers with higher incomes or greater net worth.
The large and divergent changes of these two metrics perfectly exemplifies how quickly prices have increased and is one indicator of how much money has been coming into NWA.
One final note, while I have no empirical data for this yet, based on the number of “price adjustment” notifications I have seen over the last month, I would anticipate seeing the ratio of sale price to original list price decreasing in the next month or so.
If you have any questions about the numbers or the current market conditions, reach out!