During the 2nd quarter of 2016, the volume of home sales has continued to rise and home sales prices have followed. As it has for around a year now, the supply of homes for sale is failing to meet the buyer demand for homes. Not only has supply not started to correct itself, the volume of inventory has continues to go down while the demand for homes has remained on the rise.
Kansas City area home sellers continue to obtain a very high percentage of their asking price with most obtaining 98% to 100%+ of asking price. Closings in the metro area rose 4.9% in the 2nd quarter with 11,605 home sales this year compared to 11,065 2nd quarter of last year. There were 8,582 homes for sale during the 2nd quarter this year and that’s a huge drop from the 11,894 homes for sale at this time last year… And compared to 4 years, listings are down an incredible 40%!
Overall in the Kansas City metro area, there’s 2.8 months of inventory on the market. That volume of inventory indicates a Seller’s real estate market. At this time last year there was 4.2 months available and while that’s still a seller’s market, it’s a much stronger seller’s market right now. And 3 years ago there was 5.7 months of inventory and that amount of inventory represented a balanced real estate market. Essentially we have about HALF the number of homes available for home buyers as we did a few years ago. This is a major reason home sellers have obtained an average sales price of $186,000 metro wide, which is $10,000 higher than 2nd quarter a year ago.
The current hot summer real estate market looks very much like it will continue right into the fall, and possibly all the way through it. But there’s also a lot going in the world that could change things… And interest rates are sure to rise at some point. The election year has historically played a role in the direction of the real estate market and nobody knows for sure just how that’s going to turn out. For now, we remain in a very fast paced market. If you’re thinking about making a move, give me a call to discuss the effects our current market have on your home buying and home selling decisions.
Posted by Jason Brown
