REview: Current State Of The Triangle Real Estate Market

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Posted: May 30, 2019 by Bryan Selser

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It is fun and interesting to see how the housing market behaves, and this year is especially fascinating. The National Association of Realtors just released its monthly Existing Home Sales Report that shared that 53% of all homes sold in the U.S. in April stayed on the market for less than 30 days, with an average “time on market” of just 24 days! Wow! It was 36 days in March and 26 days last April.

Nationally, there are more homes on the market with a current inventory of 1.83 million homes. This is a 4.2 months’ supply, up 1.7% over last April, and creeping towards the 6 month supply that most real estate professionals would call a “balanced” market, where supply fully meets demand and neither buyer nor seller has a negotiation advantage. Below that line indicates a seller’s market, where buyers are competing against each other (multiple bids) and have fewer choices (quicker decisions and definite need for being pre-approved for a mortgage).

This relatively tight supply of available homes resulted in 4.4% fewer sales nationally over last year and the supply/demand imbalance drove prices 3.6% higher to a median national price of $267,300.

For us in the Triangle however, inventory and prices have remained on their divergent trajectories.  For example, Inside the Beltline saw a 15.8% increase in median price for $564,500 with a supply of inventory at a relatively low 3.2 months (higher than in most markets but low for this market).

Another example is Johnston County.  JC numbers show that April was a very active month with 475 sales and a median price of $230,000, up 5.2% from last April. Inventory in Johnston County remains low at just a 2.1 months’ supply, and homes are staying on the market an average of 32 days

For the entire Triangle, the TMLS reports April with 7,899 homes for sale which is down about 5% from last April. This means we have a really low 2.3 months of supply with prices jumping 5.7% to $280,000.

While our ever tightening of inventory continues to be on the minds of buyers, sellers and real estate professionals alike, it is also interesting to see that this type of ‘inflationary behavior’ is not being met with increased interest rates.  In a recent Freddie Mac report,  they shared that mortgage interest rates should remain low. The expected 2019 average is 4.3% for a conventional 30-year mortgage. This would actually be less than last year’s 4.5%, and welcome news especially since at the start of 2019, many projected that rates would rise to 5.5%.

Now, as Al Roker likes to say on the Today Show, “Let’s take a look at what’s happening in your neck of the woods”:

If you would like to learn how your home is performing in this market or if you are interested in finding a new home, please feel free to contact one of our 350 professional agents.  And as always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to write me at my personal email: rgregory@cbadvantage.com