Just when homebuyers had thought the real estate market had shifted in their favor, reviewing sales statistics for the month of April might leave them scratching their heads.
Certainly there are ample signs of sales slowing down, particularly in comparison to the frenzied markets of 2020 and 2021. A year ago, the average days on market for home to reach an accepted offer for sale was nine. In April 2022, that average stretched to 26 days.
Overall inventory, the number of homes for sale, also has grown significantly with 339 homes listed for sale, marking an a 63% increase in a year-over-year comparison for the month of April — and a 35% jump in homes on the market from March.
Yet listing agents can still point to statistics showing seller’s are still quite well with the sale of their homes. April also saw a new record median price for homes sold in western county, climbing to $592,000 and surpassing the previous high of $565,000 reached in both July and August of 2021. And April stats show a 5.6% increase in the total number of homes sold (150) over the prior month, though lagged behind year over year of April 2021’s 172 homes sold.
ABOVE-AVERAGE APRIL
In all, the story seems similar to what western Nevada County saw throughout the first quarter of 2022, a market that has slowed from the breakneck speed of transactions in 2020 and 2021 but one still outperforming the pre-pandemic home sales.
For example, the average days on market for homes in April 2019 was 79 days — which took 203% longer than the 26 days on average recorded last month.
There were 120 homes sold in April 2019, lower than last month’s total of 150 by about 16%.
With the record median price at $592,000, homebuyers on average paid $329 per square foot, a 43% increase over the $229 per square foot paid the same month three years earlier in pre-pandemic April of 2019.
And one key reason for such record sales prices is a still below normal inventory of homes on the market.
Even with the 339 houses for sale in April marking a 35.6% increase over the number of listed in March — and well ahead of the 214 listings in April 2021 — that total still lagged 28% behind the 476 homes for sale in April 2019.
BY THE NUMBERS
April home sales in western Nevada County:
$592,000 — Median price (2022)
$550,500 — Median price (2021)
26 – Days on market (2022)
9 – Days on market (2021)
150 – Homes sold (2022)
172 – Homes sold (2021)
339 – Homes for sale (2022)
214 – Homes for sale (2021)
**This story was originally published by The Union newspaper, serving Grass Valley, Nevada City and surrounding western Nevada County communities, at www.TheUnion.com.
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 or visit http://www.BetsyHamilton.com