“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change” -Albert Einstein

Those of us in the real estate industry must be very intelligent since our market keeps changing continuously. We have gone from calming buyers who lost out on many homes in multiple offer situations to educating sellers that it will take longer to sell their home and it must be priced properly within a matter of weeks.

There are positives to the changes we are seeing. Buyers have more choices of homes and can negotiate with the sellers. The sellers are seeing a less hectic sales process.

The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors market review for July shows prices are stabilizing, pending and closed sales have dropped, and inventory is increasing.

The median sales price for all property types in all local counties is $368,000 which did not change from June. The price is up 20.7% from last July.

Nationally, the median sales price of $403,800 for July was 10.8% higher than the previous year. Earlier in 2022, prices were climbing around 20% annually, and before the pandemic prices were rising about 5% annually.

There were 2,419 closed sales in July, down 27.4% from last year and 23.3% from June when there were 3,154 closings. There were 2,379 pending sales in July down 32.0% from last year and 12.1% from June when there were 2,707 contracts written.

In my opinion, higher housing prices, rapid increase in mortgage rates, stock market adjustment, and the national media scaring everyone with headlines of a housing crash kept most homebuyers on the sidelines. This week our company has seen more contracts written than we have seen in the last few weeks. Not quite sure what to expect next, but it seems like some buyers are coming back into the market.

The active inventory is at 6,312 homes which is up 23.1% from last year and 5.9% from June. The months supply of inventory is at 2.6 months which is up 69.7% from last year and 38.1% from June. A 5 to 6 months supply of inventory is considered a balanced market.

Change is hard, but a more balanced market is good for everyone. Please let us know if we can help you in any way with your real estate needs.

Our Davidson Cares Clay Day is October 20th this year. Please go to DavidsonCares.com to sign up to shoot or buy a raffle ticket supporting several awesome local charities.

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” — Maya Angelou

Every headline seems to be negative about the economy and the housing market. If we can’t change the situation, we need to change our attitude about it.

This morning we saw that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 9.1% from a year earlier. Housing has the largest impact of any input on the CPI at roughly 40%. The Federal Reserve is very focused on bringing down inflation. As such, they are determined to bring down housing prices by raising interest rates.

The June market review from the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors does show signs of the market slowing. Closed and pending sales are down this month and inventory has increased. However, the median sales price for all property types in Northeast Florida of $369,229 continues to rise. It is up 23.1% over last year and 2.6% over May.

Experts are not expecting prices to decline but rather that they may increase at a more moderate rate. Forecasts from seven major industry groups were predicting an average of 8% increase in prices for 2022.

The median days on the market increased from 13 days to 19 days. This is still very low compared to historical data.

The closed sales of 2,968 is down 18.8% from last year and 3.1% from May when there were 3,062 closed sales. Pending sales of 2,748 are down 19.4% from last year and 11.6% from May’s 3,109.

The active inventory is 5,508 homes up 15.2% from last year and 20.6% from May’s 4,566. This equates to 1.9 months supply of homes up 24.5% from 1.5 months in May.

This is good news for buyers as they have more homes to choose from and not as many competing offers. Sellers may see their home stay on the market a little longer and not have as many offers, but there is still strong demand and low inventory.

If you have a change in your circumstances and need to buy or sell, don’t let all the negative headlines keep you from making the correct life decisions. Enjoy your summer and please let us know if we can assist you in any way.