How’s the market? This is a question that Realtors® have been fielding with care and trepidation for the past several years. As marketing professionals, we didn’t want to instill more angst in the public about the real estate market, but at the same time, we needed to keep it real and let folks know the truth, no matter how grim.
Today, if you ask an agent, “How’s the market?”, you’re likely to hear a word that we haven’t been able to use in a long time— Terrific! That’s right; it seems the market has finally turned the corner. In fact, because supply is low and demand high, we’re starting to see bidding wars again.
Most buyers, and probably sellers for that matter, who find themselves in a bidding war are stunned. Unfortunately for some buyers, they wanted to make sure we had hit bottom before they jumped in. Problem is, how do you know you were on the bottom until you start going back up? And up is exactly the direction we’re headed.
According to a recent report released by Carolina Multiple Listing Service (CMLS) and the National Association of Realtors (NAR), in Mecklenburg County, there were nearly 27% less homes on the market during the first quarter of 2012 as there were the same time last year. What’s more, sales were up nearly 9% during the same timeframe. As Economics 101 teaches, when supply is down and demand is up, it can only mean one thing, inflation. That’s right, home values are also on the rise.
In Huntersville, the median sales price in the first quarter of 2012 was $219,750, a 4% increase from the first quarter of 2011, while the number of closed sales was up 35% with 178 closed units. Cornelius saw a 7.7% increase in median sale price and a 2.2% increase in the number of homes closed during the same time period. The median sales price in the 28117 zip code of Mooresville was $310,000 and sales were up 38.9% in the first quarter. Sales were up 50.8% in the 28115 zip code of Mooresville, with a median sales price of $185,575.
It will be many years before we get back to the home values we saw in the mid-2000’s, but these are better times than we have seen for quite a while. The fact remains, enter into a real estate transaction with the intention of keeping it for several years and it will prove to be a worthy investment. The market has seen its ups and its downs, but all in all, real estate will continue to be one of the soundest investments you can make.
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