Well, I hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday season. I don’t know about you, but I’m glad to see the New Year roll around into 2021. The last year has seen a pandemic, economic damage to main street, a huge plummet in stock followed by massive gains on Wall Street, political unrest, and a highly contested election. 2020 was definitely one for the history books. As we kick off the new year, I hope we can move forward as a nation, and get things back on track. Most of all, I wish you health and safety during these continually trying times.
In Northwest Arkansas Real Estate, I’ve just been watching the inventory dwindle for almost a year now.
Here’s the NWA Residential Market data from right before the pandemic was announced in March until last week. Notice that the red line (Sold homes) has stayed above the two blue lines (New Listings and Pendings). We are now outselling our inventory replacement levels.
This means that prices will probably continue to rise through the winter. I haven’t seen a slowdown in buyer demand. But we have far fewer homes coming into the market. I’m hopeful that we’ll see more listings coming this spring, but I don’t expect prices to go lower. If trends keep going the way they are, Real Estate will keep getting more expensive across the area.
As of January 5th, we only had 771 houses in the market, so we still have less than 1 Month of Supply right now. That’s keeping our prices high.
The next chart really shows the drop in inventory more clearly. The top line represents the total of Active and Pending listings together, while the bottom line shows the number of Sold listings. As you can see, those Sale numbers have stayed consistent (and higher than previous years) while the number of properties in the market continued to shrink throughout the last year.
Our average sale price dropped back down a bit, to $279,991. That’s about where we were in October, so prices didn’t really retrace much, even during the traditionally slow month of December.
Remember the “Hidden Inventory” Home Buyer Program!
The single biggest problem with Real Estate over the last year has been a lack on homes in the market. So many people would love to move into a new home that better suits their needs, but they’re afraid to sell their current home. It’s tough to make that transition if you don’t know what else you’re going to move into.
So here’s the solution I’ve worked out for you. I’ve partnered with Local Home Builders to take contracts on their brand new homes, even with a contingency that you’d need to sell your other home first. We’ll do our best to line up the closing dates to close at the same time, in order to make the transition as smooth as possible for you.
You can grab one before anyone else realizes these homes exist, because they’re not even in the market yet. They really are “Hidden Inventory, Off Market Homes.”
This is my #1 Strategy to get you and your family into your dream home. Let’s go see what they have!
Just book a Showing Appointment with me Here to block out your own time on my calendar.
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. Hopefully, our record high prices can withstand the economic storm that has been brewing during this pandemic.
However, that may not be the case, and we may see prices fall a bit as we head into 2021. It all depends on getting new inventory into the market, which I do expect to happen here in January and into the Spring.
It’s unclear if we will see a bigger wave of the virus causing problems for our Spring selling season, along with some increased inventory due to the Foreclosure and Eviction issues.
Now, for Buyers, I see a lot of people hoping prices fall so they can get a better deal next year. Especially, in the starter home category, we’ve seen prices climb so high that many first time homebuyers have been priced out of the market. For their sake, I really hope we can get some more affordable homes into the market soon.
However, with interest rates staying low, and with job growth coming back, we may continue to see bidding wars and high buyer demand continue to push those prices higher. Waiting might not be the best solution for buyers either.
I book Free Strategy Sessions for all my clients. No pressure or obligation, but I’d be happy to help you put a solid plan in place to guide you through these uncertain times.
Would it make sense to chat for a few minutes?
Just book a FREE Strategy Session with me Here to block out your own time on my calendar.
You could also Send me a message or give me a call today! (479) 777-3379