I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays as much as I did. Let us take a moment to reflect on how the local 2020 housing market ended up and how it fared all year long. According to the Lake Havasu Market Report for December 2020, total sales and sale prices rose significantly from the end of 2019. However, inventory levels plunged to below two months for the second time in 2020. How does this affect buyers today?
Lake Havasu Market Report - December 2020
December 2020 Home Sales
Our local multiple listing service (Flex MLS) reported a total of 225 Lake Havasu properties sold in December 2020, a 10.3% increase from exactly 12 months before. It was also slightly higher than November's total sales. July's total sales of 284 remains the highest for the year. Despite a global pandemic, buyers hit the Lake Havasu marketplace in full force. We ended the year with 13.7% more sales than we did in 2019 (2394 vs. 2721). Pending listings increased 16.5% from the previous December to come in at 198. However, that ended up slightly below the 233 pending sales shown in November 2020, which is not unusual for this time of year. Active listings dropped by a whopping 45.1% in 12 months, with just 395 listings reported in December 2020 and 719 reported in December 2019. That means even fewer homes available for Lake Havasu buyers to choose from.
December 2020 Sale Prices
October's median sale price of $365,000 came in at the highest in all of 2020. After that, prices began to fall off. Even so, December's median price of $348,000 was 17.49% higher than that of December 2019, according to the December 2020 Lake Havasu Market Report. It is also just a slight dip from the $350,000 median in November. It appears that a major decrease in home values will most likely not come anytime soon.
December 2020 Inventory
Inventory levels continue to spur on our rising prices. Back in December of 2019, Flex MLS reported Lake Havasu's housing inventory at 3.66 months. That seems absolutely bloated compared to the 1.76 months reported in December 2020. In fact, the last time we showed inventory levels above three months was in May (3.16). The highest inventory level we saw for the entire year came in January, with 3.58 months available. The median days on market fell from 21 in December 2019 to 14 in December 2020 (a 33.3% decrease). We saw the highest days on market reported in February (39) and the lowest reported in November (5).
What Buyers Need to Know
Wells Fargo shows their 30-year fixed rate interest rates at 2.65%, the exact same as it was this time last month. With inventory levels below two months and a median of two weeks on the market, Lake Havasu buyers need to get their home loan squared away before they even start looking for a property. That way, they are ready to put in an offer when they find a house they like. Plus, you may find yourself in a multiple-buyer situation. So, you need to make sure your offer stands above the rest to win the bid. This is where an experienced Lake Havasu REALTOR® (ahem, like me) comes in handy. I will sit down with you and help you craft a winning bid for that Havasu home of your dreams. Unfortunately, until we see more homes on the market, prices may not fluctuate much anytime soon. Therefore, an excellent offer is even more important than ever before. If you want to own a new home in 2021, contact me at (928) 208-5154 or send me an email.
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Visit any of my Lake Havasu real estate sites below for more information on the Havasu market:
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Originally posted on my Lake Havasu real estate market blog here: https://havasuareahomes.com/lake-havasu-market-report-for-december-2020/.
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