The Charlotte Regional Realtor Association published their monthly report today. For yet another month, inventory is down while home prices are up. Home sales are up from last year at the same time. There appears to be no end in sight for this current trend.
The downward slide in inventory continues with a drop of 20.3% to a 2.4 month supply. There were 9,212 homes on the market in March, down from 11,562 homes at this time last year. The 11,562 homes represented a 3.3 month supply.
There were 3,965 homes sold in March, up 11.5% from 3,557 homes in March 2016. In February of this year, there were 2,570 homes sold so the number of homes sold in March was up 54% from February. In 2016 this was only a 39% jump from February to March showing just how strong home sales this year have been compared to last year. Maybe it’s the amazing weather helping sales this year.
As is usually true about the law of supply and demand, when supply is low, prices go up. This has been true for the Charlotte area. Average sales prices were up 10.4% over last year to $271,351. The median sales price rose 11.6% to $220.950.
Once homes hit the market, they are not staying there long. The average time from list to close is now 104 days. That is down 18 days from 2016, a decrease of 14.8%.
It appears that more homeowners are trying to take advantage of the spring season as new listings were up 6.2% from 5,648 last year to 5,999 this year. Pending sales also increased from 4,404 last year to 5,116 this year, a 16.2% jump.
Homes are selling for an average of 96.9% of list price. This is up from 95.6% of list price in March of last year. This follows the trend we are seeing of homes getting right around list price and in some cases multiple offers.
Home prices and sales could slow as the year progresses as the Fed has already indicated that they will be hiking interest rates two more times this year. This could make mortgages harder to obtain for first time buyers, and pricier for all other buyers. It remains to be seen how much, if any impact that has in Charlotte’s hot market.
If you are interested in a home in the Charlotte area, give us a call at (704) 525-4045. You can also view homes on our website here.