Hi, I’m Jay Acker with Real Estate by Design Group at Keller Williams Realty, and here’s your first quarter update for 2019.
Our last market update was about three months ago, middle of fourth quarter, and we were seeing some trends starting to fall certain ways. We were starting to see more favorable conditions for buyers, days on market was climbing, prices were leveling off if not dropping in many pockets of the market. We’re seeing a lot of that continue as well.
Our inventory from fourth quarter to first quarter is down about 12%; our average value has fallen, our sales price has fallen about 10% and lands at $287,000; our days on market has continued to climb from 45 to 57 over the last 90 days. Those are big indicators of a shifting market, but the thing that we didn’t expect to see was the fact that rates have actually come down.
We were predicting they would go up three times approximately through 2019, but we’re actually seeing a first quarter drop to 4.3, which nobody was really expecting. We think the rates are driven by what the market conditions are telling us right now; inventory is sitting a little bit longer and there are fewer buyers out there taking advantage of the conditions.
So, what does this mean if you are a buyer? The conditions have not been more favorable in the last five years if you’re thinking about buying a home. Again, the rates are super low, we don’t know what that crystal ball says for the rest of the year, but right now we know they’ve come down to 4.3, which is very favorable for buyers.
Inventory is still relatively high, and we’re starting to see a lot of people come out of the woodwork to take advantage of those lending products and get into their new home by the end of Spring.
If you’re a seller, it’s still a very hot market. Anything under about three months of inventory, which we have right now, is still considered a seller’s market. The most critical thing you need to be doing right now if your home is on the market is make sure your agent is effectively marketing your property. We can’t stress that enough.
Two years ago, we could throw a sign in your yard and cross the fingers and generally get results. Right now, it actually takes some savvy and some effort on the part of your agent to actually get your word out there and make sure everybody knows about your home.
For any more information on our current market, what we think it may do or if you’d like to know the value of your home, we’re happy to provide that for you. All you need to do is contact us at our website, and as always we’re here to help any way we can. Thanks so much.