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Slightly Fewer Home Sales, Much Higher Sales Prices In January 2022 |
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 Happy Snowy Monday Morning! This is my favorite kind of snow... beautiful everywhere... but not sticking to the road...  I hope you stayed warm inside yesterday and that enjoyed the Super Bowl last night. Hopefully your favorite team won... or you enjoyed the commercials... or you enjoyed the half time performance... or you enjoyed spending time with family and friends while partaking in all of the above!? It seems like the year just started, but we're already one eight of the way through the year! Before we get started, two quick links of interest... [1] The beautiful home featured on the cover of this month's market report is located at 471 Flower Drive at the base of Massanutten Resort is and currently for sale. [2] You can download all of the graphs and charts from my monthly report here. Now, onto the data...  We're only looking at data for one month - and the slowest month of the year, so it's hard to draw many conclusions thus far, but here are a few things I am noticing... [1] There were slightly fewer home sales this year (103) than last year (106) during the month of January. [2] The median sales price over the past 12 months was $272,000 which is nearly 11% higher than the median sales price of $246,000 during the 12 months before that. [3] Homes are currently selling (going under contract) very quickly with a median of five days on the market - which is a 37.5% decline from the eight day pace a year ago. It is likely helpful to put this January in the context of other months of January, and other months, generally...  As you can now see, the 103 home sales this January landed right between the 100 sales in January 2020 and the 106 sales in January 2022. So, it was a typical January based on the past few years - though well above the 65 home sales seen in January 2019. Furthermore, we should likely expect to see sales drop in February as they have each of the past two years. January tends to be the second slowest month of the year for home sales with February leading the pack. Once we then head into March we should start to see a steady increase in the monthly pace of home sales. Now, a historical observation that I hadn't noticed until now...  This is one of the graphs I show you most months that allows us to look at how monthly home sales each year are stacking up compared to prior years. It seems the local housing market in 2020 was on par with 2019 all the way through August 2020 -- and then, the pace of home sales took off in the last four months of 2020, and have been accelerating ever since that time! But... maybe the pace of sales is leveling off a bit?  As you can see, the annual pace of home sales accelerated quickly from 1,300 sales per year up to 1,600 sales per year between mid 2020 and mid 2021. Over the past six months, however, the annual pace of home sales seems to have stabilized right around 1,650 sales per year. It will be interesting to see whether this trend continues as we continue through 2022. Now, then, looking at contract activity - which typically precedes the closing of a home sales by 30 to 60 days...  Two things to note about contract activity... [1] Last January we saw 133 buyers and sellers sign contracts to buy and sell houses in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. This January, only 110 contracts were signed. This means that we will likely see a bit of a drop off in closed sales come February. [2] Looking back at last February and March we should note that we will likely also see a decline in contract activity between January and February before we see a large increase in March. So, expect a continued "slower" pace of market activity for at least the next few weeks before things potentially start accelerating in early or mid March. Another story line to be watching in 2022 is what happens with inventory levels...  Inventory levels have been declining for several years, most notably above through all of 2020. But during 2021, inventory levels remained relatively stable, and did not decline further. Maybe because they can't? There will always be some homes on the market as I don't think we'll get down to only five or ten or twenty five homes for sale. The floor, in this case, might be right around 100 homes for sale. It will be interesting to see whether we continue to see a range of around 95 to 130 homes for sale all year this year like we did last year. Part of the reason why inventory levels don't seem to be able to increase is because homes are going under contract so quickly...  As shown above, 81% of homes that sold in the past year went under contract within 30 days of being listed for sale. Going a bit further, we also see that half of the homes that sold last year went under contract within only FIVE days of being listed for sale given the median of five days on the market. With homes going under contract so quickly, it is not surprising that inventory levels did not manage to increase much through 2021. Here, then, is another visualization of the speed at which homes are going under contract...  As you can see, two years ago the median days on market was 18 days. That median days on market figure then speedily declined through summer 2021 when it hit just five days on the market. Since that time, it has leveled off at five days on the market, calling into question whether it could actually get any faster. As we continue through 2022 I will be monitoring this trend to see if the market seems to be slowing at all. Thus far, it is not. And, yet another story line to be following in 2022...  The average 30 year mortgage interest rate hit an all time low in late 2020 of 2.65%. Average rates closed out 2021 just above 3%, but have now climbed, within a month, to above 3.5% and they have continued to climb during February 2022. As rates increase, a buyer's mortgage payment increases depending on how much of a purchase price they are financing. At some point, rising interest rates will affect housing affordability -- for some buyers buying some houses. We will have to continue to observe this trend through 2022 to see if rising interest rates seem to be affecting the local housing market. So, as described above, there are plenty of possible developing trends in our local housing market. Stay tuned through 2022 to see if the market can and will stay just as strong in 2022 as it was in 2021. If so, it will continue to be a thrilling time for home sellers, and a bit of a challenging time for home buyers. If you are planning to buy a home, or sell a home, in 2022 let's connect soon to start talking about the process, the market and your goals and timing. Just reach out by email, phone or text (540-578-0102) and we can set up a time to meet. Until next time, enjoy the beautiful snow while it lasts -- it looks like temperatures will be starting to warm up come Wednesday! P.S. Happy Valentine's Day! Recent Articles:
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Scott Rogers
Funkhouser Real
Estate Group
540-578-0102
scott@funkhousergroup.com
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Commonwealth of Virginia
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