We hope you’re all doing well and know you’re probably ready for a market update!
We’ve attached a few snapshots to show how the market has been trending since Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.
The Salt Lake and Utah County housing market has cooled off quickly but hasn’t yet had a negative effect on the list prices of new inventory.
SALES PER MONTH
The first useful numbers to look at are the “Sales per Month”.
This report shows us the number of transactions taking place each month, total volume and how it is compromised.
February 2020 total volume was up 24% from February 2019 with 10% more transactions taking place.
March 2020 total volume was up 5% from March 2019 even though there were fewer total transactions in the month.
In the first week and a half of April 2020 total volume is down 44% from April 2019 with 46% fewer transactions.
If you look at the graph from the last 3 years, you can see how the market generally moves like a camel’s humps up and up, but at the end of March, it’s fallen completely flat.
The graph also shows how on average original list prices have flattened, but haven’t dropped.
ACTIVE / UNDER CONTRACT LISTINGS
This report shows how many Active & Under Contract listings there are on the market at a time.
You can see that inventory was relatively low compared to last year but was moving at a similar trajectory, this makes for a strong seller’s market and can make it very difficult to feel confident as a buyer.
Things were moving inline with last year right up until the 3rd week of March when our 2 all-stars tested positive.
From March 17 to Today you can see that Active listings have actually risen 39% from 2,760 to 3,852 while in the same time span Under Contract Listings have dropped 11% from 4,243 to 3,762.
There is more inventory on the market and fewer buyer’s shopping, turning the market from a strong seller’s market to more of a buyers market.
The numbers show that there are sellers that have been inspired to list their homes but there aren’t buyers out there that are willing to capture the added inventory.
TAKEAWAY
There are a million things we could take away, what do we want to focus on?
Stay optimistic, there will be fewer transactions taking place, buyers will be able to be more selective but shouldn’t expect crazy price reductions. As more buyer’s gain confidence in their jobs and the future the market will start coming back.
Seller’s need to push their listings harder than ever in order to get the best price for their home and not be taken advantage of.
This lul in the market is a side-effect of COVID-19, not the cause of a recession like it was in 2008.
Take care of your neighbors.
