2018 Third Quarter Real Estate Report

After three quarters of 2018 the number of residential properties sold is slightly behind last year at this time. The number of cash sales is slightly down also. However, all other categories are still going strong for the 2018 third quarter.

Residential sales

The number of residential sales dropped 6.6% however the dollar volume was up 3.2% and the average sale price up 10.5%. The reason for all of these changes is likely the lack of lower priced residential properties.   The sales of properties priced under $300,000 have dropped to less than half the number there was in 2017.  After nine months of 2017, 251 properties sold for under $300,000.  This year that number is 116.

Cash Sales

The number of cash sales dropped ever so slightly from 30.6% of sales to 29.2%. Still, pretty consistent over time.  You’re looking at about one in every three sales being a cash purchase. With an average sale price of $762,129 that’s a lot of affluent buyers.

Quick Sales

Properties continue to sell quickly. 65% of all properties are under contract within the first 30 days. That number jumps to 77.8% if you push the timeframe to 60 days.  That is a 2% bump over last year.  With that said, there are still properties that take more than a year to sell, even in this market.

Land Sales

Land sales are doing well. Generally lower inventory markets make more people decide to build. Higher prices encourage builders and developers to buy lots to build on. We have both of those in this market. As a result, Land sales are up 11.5% this year. The average sales price has climbed 15.9% to $407,455. Land sales are quicker this year too with about one-third selling in the first 30 days compared to one-fourth in 2017.

We will probably see a slight decline in residential sales numbers when final numbers are in for 2018. If so, that will be our first decline since we started to head back up after the recession. Everything else in our market continues to look good so it’s easy to write that sales decline off as low inventory. We are hearing about signs of slowing in other markets, however, leaving us cautiously optimistic.