The lack of listing inventory has caught up with the housing market. Home sales dropped by a staggering 10.9% in April (while values sky-rocket). This is very unusual and never happened in spring. Traditionally, April and May have been the months when home sales picked up before summer break.
Listing Inventory Not Recovering
This year was different. Eager buyers wrote contracts earlier in the year, leading to a record 1st quarter. After April, however, we are even with 2016 sales year to date.
Here’s what concerns me: the latest housing report shows that pending contracts were 8.7% lower than last year and new listings were down by 10%. That’s 357 fewer homes in contract by the end of April. It looks like May will be another down month for home sales.
The only way out of this “crisis” would be a substantial increase of the listing inventory and more new home construction.
The Hottest Zipcode in Columbus
While overall home sales dropped by 10.9%, there’s one area in Columbus where transactions almost doubled in April (up by 92.3% year over year) and the average sales price increased by 79.4% to $403,702.
It’s not a suburb. As a matter of fact, home sales are down by more than 20% in Dublin, Worthington, Delaware, Olentangy, and by 34% in Hilliard. These cities also saw a decline in new listings, which means the listing inventory is not going to recover anytime soon.
The hottest Zipcode in Central Ohio is 43215 – Downtown Columbus.
25 homes (mostly upscale condos) sold in April. Another 47 are in contract.
If you want to move downtown, I have good news for you. Unlike in the suburbs, there’s a solid listing inventory of 3 months – twice the average of the MLS.
April 2017 Columbus Housing Stats
Home Sales were down by 10.9% in April with 2,479 closed transactions.
Home Values have increased by 7.1% year over year with an average sales price of $215,246 (that’s $13,000 more than in March).
Days on Market were down to 40 in April. That’s 12 days shorter (-23%) than a year ago. The supply is only 1.6 months.
The Inventory remained at historically low levels. Only 4,338 homes are listed for sale. That’s 19.1% lower than last year.
You can download the complete Central Ohio housing report and all local reports at www.columbusrealtors.com/stats