Well Christmas is upon us, and we’ll be in a New Year before you know it. And what a wild ride it’s been so far in 2021. A supply/demand imbalance has been with us all year, and it has driven our prices higher and higher across the NWA region. The average sale prices have stayed above $330,000 for the last 6 months across Washington and Benton Counties. And our Median Sales Price hit a new record in November.
The Month’s Supply has dropped to 0.70 from last month’s 0.82 months of inventory (That means if we had no more homes enter the market, we’d sell through all the available homes in about 21 days!)
The supply shortage of homes has brought about a higher pricing level that promises to be around for a while. Prices will likely even rise from this level, trending upward through 2022. I wouldn’t necessarily expect prices to rise as quickly as they have this year. The rate of change this year was highly unusual, and I would expect the market to eventually go back to a more stable rate of appreciation.
The number of home Sales is remaining high, staying above 1,000 closings since May ’21. So the buyer demand is very strong. However, we never got a big rush of listings hitting the market this Spring. In fact, it took until August and September for inventory to exceed that ’19/’20 Winter Seasonal low. This resulted in record price appreciation for our area.
In June, our average sale price reached a new record high of $338,877 (revised). In November, we were still around that high at $332,686. The Median hit a new record at $280,400, firmly establishing a new higher range for Median Prices.
This $340,000 Avg. and $280,000 Median seem to be significant levels for our area. The chart has tested those levels 3 times over the last 6 months and hasn’t broken through. We may see those price level dip back for January and February before coming back stronger in the Spring and Summer of 2022.
A Flood of Foreclosures?
The high levels of forbearances that happened during the pandemic made some researches concerned about another foreclosure crisis hitting after the pandemic. And it seemed many home buyers and Real Estate investors alike were hopeful for a flood of properties to hit the market and put a dent in these record high prices. That threat to the market never materialized over 2021.
As you can see in the chart above, there were just under 5 million homes in forbearance at the start of the pandemic, but that number steadily dwindled as homeowners resumed making normal payments, refinanced, or sold (usually for large profits.) With only 1 million homes left in forbearance, there’s no reason to assume prices will fall significantly from this issue.
So, if you’ve been holding out for a market crash before you buy, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence pointing in the opposite direction toward prices maintaining this level or rising from here. The longer you wait, the more you will likely pay in the future.
What it all Means for You
If you’ve been thinking of selling your home, right now is a historically good time to do so. These market forces continue to push prices higher and higher across our region.
And even though the prices are already high, my clients have been using my Preparation Plans and Top-Notch Marketing, and have been getting offers at $10,000, $20,000, even $30,000 over the average sales prices for their neighborhoods.
To see the strategies we’ve been implementing, Watch my “Pre-Listing Price Accelerator” Guide Here and see How To Maximize Your Home Sale. It will walk you through everything I’ve been doing to get these amazing results for my home sellers.
But then you run into the problem of finding your next place. Understandably, many potential home sellers have decided to stay put because they don’t think they’ll be able to find their next home with so few on the market. And that’s the big issue, the main problem to solve this year.
For this reason, I’ve put together a program to find “Hidden Inventory, Off Market Homes” for my clients.
This is my #1 Strategy to get you and your family out of your current home and into your dream home. Let’s see what we can find together!
Just click here to learn all about the “Dream Home Finder” Program!