Real estate inventory levels affecting sales and pricing | News
HIGHLANDS – Low real estate inventories directly impact the high sales prices and low total sales we are currently experiencing locally and nationally. The high country housing and real estate stock continues its slow rise after hitting record lows in April. However, when we compare it to inventory levels and sales at that time last year, we see a strong comparison as the total number of homes sold is down 33 percent.
In July 2020, the real estate surge began for the High Country. Inventory was good, sales grew rapidly and prices started to rise. Keep flashing to our current real estate market. The real estate boom has led us, along with the rest of the nation, to low inventory levels. With a 1% increase in inventory compared to the previous month, August started with 576 housing offers in our region with four counties. Around this time last year, our MLS recorded an inventory of over 860 properties. This shows a decrease in inventory of over 48% year over year. With lower inventories than in previous years, we see the relationship between our inventory and the total sales recorded.
High Country Realtors® reported 279 properties sold in July of this year. Those numbers look good for our year-to-date growth. But let’s look at our numbers from last July. Realtors® reported 372 homes sold in July 2020. This means we have seen a 33% decrease in registered home sales. This shows that lower inventory levels correlate with our home sales, which will also be lower. The low inventory also has an effect on the higher real estate prices according to the law of supply and demand.
Our MLS data shows that the median sales price continues to rise. Of the 279 homes sold in July, the median retail price was $ 357,000. Comparing that number to the average sales price in July 2020, which was $ 280,000, we see an increase of more than $ 77,000. In addition to this increase, we are still seeing sellers getting an average of 99% of the asking price. And although the sales figures in terms of the amount sold do not come close to those of the previous year, the sales volume has increased slightly. In July, Realtors® had more than $ 123 million in sales, including the $ 13 million residential property sold on-site.
COUNTRY: In July, 129 lots in Alleghany, Ashe, Avery and Watauga were sold for a combined total of nearly $ 14.9 million. These numbers are slightly lower than the previous month’s report.
Watauga County was the top-selling land that month, 57 tracts for $ 7.49 million. Ashe County was the second highest-selling land with 29 lots grossing more than $ 1.72 million. Avery County followed with 18 tracts for more than $ 1.86 million and Alleghany with 14 tracts that sold for just over $ 2.4 million.
COMMERCIALLY: Following commercial sales in June, a total of five commercial properties were sold in July for a total value of more than $ 4.5 million. According to our MLS, three were in Watauga County, which was the equivalent of $ 3.89 million. Then one each in Ashe and Avery. The Ashe County property sold for $ 185,000 while the Avery County property sold for $ 455,000. No commercial property was sold in Alleghany County in July.
ALLEGHANY COUNTY: 55 Alleghany County Realtors® sold 26 homes for $ 5.29 million. The average retail price for these properties was $ 199,450.
ASHE COUNTY: 147 Ashe County Realtors® sold 54 homes for a total of $ 17.45 million. The average retail price was $ 277,705.
AVERY COUNTY: 158 Realtors® sold 59 homes in Avery County for a total of just over $ 31 million. The average sales price for these properties was $ 365,000.
WATAUGA COUNTY: 447 Watauga County Realtors® listed 117 homes that were sold for nearly $ 59 million. The average retail price was $ 436,000.
INTEREST CHARGES: We continue to see historically low interest rates. Freddie Mac reports that 30-year FRM mortgages fell to 2.77% on August 6, 2021.