Spring 2017 Real Estate Market Update
It's Spring in NL (or Sprinter), whichever you prefer. This is the time of year when we come out from our winter slumber and go outside to do things. Sometimes those things include the purchase and/or sale of a home. Since our local economy has been a bit of a let down over the past few years, I thought it would be a good time to drill down into the market data and let your curious minds know what's really happening in our local real estate market.
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The myths of the local market
*LIST PRICE Vs SALE PRICE*
The first thing we should do is dispell the myth that housing prices have dropped considerably. While there are certainly deals to be had out there, as you can see in this snapshot below, homes are still selling for about 96% of their asking prices which peaked at about 98.5% back in one the boom years of 2012. On several occasions over the past year we've received offers on listings that were 80-90% of their asking price (which were rejected by the homeowner of course) as they were just not realistic offers. When a home is priced correctly for the current market it reflects in the list vs sale price stats.
Find out the current value of your home right now!
The next myth we want to dispess is how long it's takes to sell a home in this market. As you'll see back in 2015 listings were on the market for considerably more time prior to selling. Today a reasonable expectation on average is about 75 days, at least that's what it's been the case for the 1st quarter of 2017.
*DAYS TO SELL*
NUMBER OF CURRENT LISTINGS ON THE MARKET
This is where things get interesting. As you can see, there were 708 new listings on the MLS in March. This considerably higher than average for this time of year as we don't tend to see those numbers until well into the summer months. This means there is currently a lot of extra inventory on the market, which means it's a very competitive market.
$1,000,000 HOMES
Beautiful Executive homes tend to photograph well and have us thinking about the day we win lotto 6/49 so we can buy it. As we know, when economies are under performing, very few people purchase big expensive homes. So what's the data telling us? Well this graphic shows that on average only 2-3 homes over $1,000,000 actually sell each year. Taking a further look into the $500,000-$1,000,000 price range reveals that there were only approximately 50 homes in the St. John's area sold in this range in all of 2016, which was cut almost in half when you look at the 2015 numbers. Year to date only 3 homes over $500,000 have exchanged hands within the city limits.
So, where is most of the activity happening?
Here we can see the numbers over the past 3 years we can see the number of homes sold and in each price range. in what price range and also how many are actually selling. The vast majority of the activity is happening in the $200-400k range fuelled by first time buyers and those who wish to move from their starter homes into something a little bigger.
Free List of the most recently listed homes under $350,000
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We understand the local market and spend our days looking for ways save our clients thousands of dollars on their transactions. Whether you are looking for a little information or a lot, we have it at all at our disposal. If you'd like to know more, or how this affects your specific situation, reach out to us:
info@normanlane.ca
709.221.7653(office)
709.764.3363 (cell)
