The kids are getting settled in their new routine, parents have completed the stack of forms in triplicate, and the teachers have almost all the names down. Know what that means? We’re in the last week of August, so it’s time to look back at the July market! Here we go…
Both categories in the month of July were very similar, which is a good indicator of steady movement. As always, we’ll start with single family detached. July of 2019 showed a 15% increase in unit volume from 247 units last year to 284 this year. They sold much faster also, showing a decrease from 83 days on market to 69 which is a 20.3% drop from last year. The only thing that didn’t change much was the sales price, from $205,057 last year to $205,245 for 2019. For the numbers folks out there, that’s less than a 0.01% difference.
Moving on to the attached properties, unit sales were amazing! Jumping 67.9% over 2018 from 28 to 47 this year. They also sold considerably faster, averaging 52 days on the market for July of 2019 which is a 48.1% drop from 2018 that came in at 77 days on average. Price? Just like the detached they hardly changed. In July of 2018 the average was $188,067 and this year $186,802. A touch of a drop, but less than 1.0%.
I love these numbers! July is typically one of our slowest closing months considering May is typically when those homes went under contract. What are people doing in May? Graduating, wrapping up school, planning vacations, pretty much everything but shopping for homes. So why the drastic increase in unit volume? Rates! They dropped drastically which pushed a lot of people into the market earlier than they were planning. Considering June is typically slow as well I expect our numbers in August will be similar, but we’ll have to wait a bit to find out.
Looking ahead, fall typically brings a surge of transactions in anticipation of the holidays. I’ll be curious to see if that thins out a bit from all the activity over the summer, but as we all know conjecture is one thing and results are another. In other words, we’ll just have to bide our time and see how the numbers pan out.
That’s all for this month! If you haven’t yet stocked up on hotdogs and watermelon, better get to the store before they run out of buns. Enjoy your family time tomorrow, and until next week/month I hope you relish in what remains of your summer. Before you know if we’ll be sipping cider and raking leaves, and to be totally honest I don’t mind a bit. I’m all about the crisp air and evenings by the fire ring…
Melissa Berube, 2019 MBOR President
