JOSH BUCHANAN

January 3, 2020

Another month has quickly come and gone. This time, it was the last month of the year and the last month of the decade! The month of December produced some very strong sales numbers; some of the strongest we’ve seen in recent years. There was a total of 203 sales and 304 listings which created a very high sales-to-listings ratio of 0.67 for the month. These were some impressive improvements compared to last December.

When looking at the 5-year average numbers for the month of December, 2019 outperformed the average by 8 sales and had 51 fewer listings. The sales-to-listings ratio rose by 12 points from 0.55 to 0.67.

For the year-to-date numbers, this year finished off with a very strong showing in sales relative to last year. There were 3,614 sales, up by 285 from last year which is an increase of 8.5%. This rise still wasn’t enough to come anywhere close to the total reached in 2014 but it was a strong improvement compared to last year and it was the first time we saw sales numbers rise since 2014. The number of listings had a noticeable decline of 199 units from last year. The rise in sales and fall in listings allowed for the sales-to-listings ratio to climb by 5 points from 0.42 to 0.47. The average sales price for 2019 was $331,605 which is just a small decline from last year when it was $332,832.

When looking at 5-year averages for YTD numbers, 2019 had nearly 200 fewer sales and nearly 1,300 fewer listings but the sales-to-listings ratio managed to increase by 5 points. For average sales price, 2019 fell by roughly $16,000 compared to the 5-year average.

Conclusion:

The year 2019 had a strong finish and proved that the market has finally improved after 4 consecutive years of decline. The sales-to-listings ratio managed to climb back to near-balanced levels and everything appears to be trending upward for 2020. Despite the relatively strong showing in 2019, the average MLS sale’s price still dipped a little bit which really shouldn’t come as a surprise being that the market is still oversupplied. With a ratio of 0.47 for 2019, I wouldn’t expect to see prices continue to decline much, if at all, in 2020.

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