By Mike Bodeen · 14 September 2020
For months and years, our weekly Monday Market Snapshot has reported the unending buyer trauma of a torrid seller’s market. Inventory shrinking to near record lows, current double-digit appreciation, sales increasing despite the low inventory, and multiple offers on the lower price ranges. And recently, sales in the higher end are also rising up. All in a pandemic!
Is it all bad for buyers? Well, today I hope to share some good news for our pool of buyers. This does not mean the market has taken a dive. No, it hasn’t, and this current news might turn out to be nothing, but we’ll report even a small glimmer of buyer hope – after all, it’s not wise to despise the day of small things!
We’ll start with the microscopic inventory of listings. There has been a rise in inventory from one month ago. We had gotten down to 7,777 listed homes on August 14th. As of September 14th, we have increased listings to 8,408. That’s an 8% increase in listings. The next two months will tell us which way the listing numbers will go.
Days of market inventory increased from 49 to 52, while the number of months supply rose from 1.3 to 1.5 months. Increasing inventory is a plus for buyers.
Sales since last month have dropped 9% to 9477 from 10,322. This number (9,477), however, is up from 2019’s total of 8,683 – a 9% increase. Pending listings rose slightly, but negligibly, almost a wash.
Further good news is the stellar sub 3%, 30 year, fixed mortgage rates. As long as the economy remains weak, rates should remain low for the foreseeable future – whatever that is.
NE Valley Sales Way Up
In somewhat of a sales reversal, the higher end NE Valley, including Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Cave Creek, and Fountain Hills are witnessing double digit sales increases, the current hottest sales market in the Valley. Are these the California buyers, buying up our more expensive homes, but much less costly to them? Hard to say, but we think that makes perfect sense.
Stay tuned, we’ll keep you informed – every week!