Three things are really jumping out this month. 1) Market times on the active listings are really starting to climb. (We are looking at the cummulative days on market for the active listings.) 2) The market inventory is incredibly low in West Savage – it’s sitting at only eight active properties as of March 15. 3) There has only been one pending sale, and one closed sale, in the past 45 days. The reasons for these rather staggering trends, especially coming out of a very hot 2013 market, is unclear. Our top assumption is that it’s attributable to the winter we just experienced. Hopefully the thaw in weather warms up the market as well. Rates are still competitive and should be having minimal impact.
Take these observations one step further, and it is clear that pricing also seems softer at this time. Unlike last year, when low interest rates and low inventories drove pricing upwards and sellers became aggressive with pricing a little above the range of the comparables, this year the buyers are calmer. So pricing a home on the high side is creating stagnancy for some sellers at this time. That could easily change come April or May. And probably will.
A couple other notes of interest: As of this time there are ZERO homes available for sale in The Pointe as of March 15, Hamilton Hills, Hamilton Hylands and Ridgewood/Boone Place. There are ZERO foreclosures in our West Savage market right now, and only one short sale, which was sold subject to bank approval for several months and is now back on the market looking for a new buyer.
This month, single family and townhome inventory in both Savage and Scott County (as a whole) has increased, especially single family inventory. Our West Savage absorption rate is 2.82. That means if zero new homes come on the market, it will take 2.82 months to sell our existing inventory.