The above-the-fold headline in a national newspaper a couple of weeks ago said this: “Home sales reach lofty heights.” My real estate heart started fluttering even before I read the first sentence, and by the time I was done, I was swooning.
As it turned out, my flutter was well-deserved and somewhat understated. According to the National Associations of Realtors, existing home sales rose 24.7% in July from a month before; just to be clear, that’s one month. The annual increase in sales from July of last year increased 8.7%. The last time sales activity was this high was in December of 2006.
These are spectacular numbers nationally, leading Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtor’s (NAR) chief economist, to say, “the housing market is actually past the recovery phase and is now in a booming stage.” A strong housing market is always a positive sign for the economy; home purchases lead to increased spending across the board on furniture, appliances, renovations and landscaping.
How is all this possible? We’re still in the middle of a pandemic. Millions of people are out of work, it’s summer and it’s an active hurricane season. The answer in part appears to be that Americans are totally rethinking where and how they live and they are not wasting any time looking for a change in lifestyle. According to a survey by realtor.com, about 40% of home buyers are looking to buy soon and are not waiting for the virus to slow down.
Everyone wants a reboot after being stuck at home for five months watching the walls closing in. Condominium owners want single-family homes and single-family homeowners want larger and more spread out property. City dwellers want the suburbs or country living and everyone wants to change the negative features in their homes that they may have just noticed. This activity is not only affecting the resale market but the new home market, which represents about 10% of the real estate market, is also roaring back.
And speaking of spectacular, Manatee County’s sales numbers for July are right up there with the national numbers.
There was a 26.7% increase in the sale of single-family homes from July of last year to this year. The median (half above, half below) price of single-family homes was $358,963, a 10.5% increase from last year. It should be noted that the national median home price for July was $304,100 – a record high.
The single-family average sale price was $476,011, an increase of 21.7%, with a median time to contract of only 37 days. Pending inventory was up 25.7%, and we’re still suffering from a serious lack of inventory down to only 2.3 months available properties.
Condos closed 16.5% more units in July over last year and the median sales price was $220,000, up 15.2%. The average condo sale price was $270,527 up 24.9% from last year and the median time to contract was 64 days. Pending inventory is up 42% and the month’s supply of available properties is 3.6%.
Another interesting turn is that nationally, first-time buyers accounted for 34% of sales in July per the NAR. Many of these first-time buyers are millennials who are being motivated by the virus to get off the sidelines, start families and adjust their lifestyles. This is a surprise to me but it’s true, a lot of young people are working remotely, still getting paid and for some reason don’t want to let the virus dictate their future. Good for them.
Well, now that my heart’s rhythm is back to normal, I can stop worrying about the real estate market for a while and concentrate on COVID and hurricanes; there is always something. Stay safe.
