Anyone still wondering how far the market shift has moved from that white-hot seller’s market of 2020-2021 should talk to prospective buyers, especially those who began their home search about six months ago.
They’ll tell you there’s a whole lot more for the home-buying dollar available than mere months ago, when they were often up against multiple — and highest and best — offers on homes for sale.
Or just ask a homeowner trying to sell their property today, especially those who put their home on the market about the same time the aforementioned buyers began looking for homes in late winter and early spring.
They’ll tell you the buyers so willing to pay above-asking prices just months ago are tough to find, as are full-price offers with buyers looking to land an even better deal, no matter how many price reductions have already been made.
Quick-climbing interest rates mean fewer buyers qualifying to finance at the list price — and those who do qualify do so at lower loan amounts yet higher payments than just a few months ago. With less financing available to them, buyers have fewer available funds for needed repairs or insurance, key costs that certainly have become important factors in deciding to buy.
Meanwhile, amid all that hand-wringing, homes that would have sold in days (if not hours) earlier this year, are now sitting on the market longer than buyers and sellers active in recent market had come to expect.
For an example, the average days on market for a home to have an accepted offer in 2021 was 12 days.
That was actually the average for four consecutive months last year — including the month of August — with April, May and June actually averaging just single digits in days on market.
Last month, the average days on market in western Nevada County rose to 35 days.
That marks a 45% increase over July’s average of 24 days and 191% higher than August just a year ago.
But the current average days on market appears more consistent with pre-pandemic real estate sales in western Nevada County than the high-volume sales of the nearly two-year frenzied market.
For an example with a more full perspective than sales comparison of the past two years, take a look at 2018 and 2019 when the average days on market was 51 and 58 days, respectively.
Comparing 2022’s monthly days on market reports, year-to-date from 2021, makes it easy to see why seller’s might seem a bit impatient — or more motivated — to move the sale of their home along. But the wider view shows the market has moved toward what’s been a more normal sales timeline in western Nevada County.
SNAPSHOT OF STATISTICS
Despite a slower average sales timeframe, total sales volume was actually up 16.5% in August over July with a total of 148 homes sold.
The same number of homes, 148, were sold in August 2021.
August also marked the fourth consecutive month that total inventory in western county was above 400 homes. But the 402 listed for sale was 12% lower than July and down from a high 459 homes on the market in June. May was the first monthly report to surpass 400 homes on the market in western county since May 2020, when 431 homes were listed.
Also down in August was the median price of a home sold in western county at $564,500, a 3.3% decrease over July. August’s median price also is 4.8% lower than the $592,500 high recorded in April, but remains 22.1% higher than August 2019’s pre-pandemic median price of $462,500.
Also down month-over-month were reported pending sales, dropping 3.7% to 163 for August, and the price per square foot, which was down 0.3% from the previous month, at $321.
Brian Hamilton is a Realtor (Lic.# 02149112) and assistant to the regional manager for the Betsy Hamilton Real Estate Team (Lic.# 01936209) at RE/MAX Gold (Lic#: 01949144) in Grass Valley. For more information, contact him at Brian@BetsyHamilton.com.
BY THE NUMBERS
August home sales in western Nevada County:
- $564,500 — Median price (2022)
- $565,000 — Median price (2021)
- 35 – Days on market (2022)
- 12 – Days on market (2021)
- 148 – Homes sold (2022)
- 148– Homes sold (2021)
- 402 – Homes for sale (2022)
- 261 – Homes for sale (2021)