Comparing July of 2023 to July of 2024
This month I am reporting on July’s statistics for Chittenden County only, because one month of statistics for surrounding counties will be too small of a sample to indicate a trend. I also looked at year-over-year numbers and see a bit of a trend surfacing.
I look at single family homes and condos together and evaluate changes in the number of homes listed, number of homes sold, median sales price, median days on market until a contract was signed and how the sales price compared to the list price.
In July of 2023, 139 homes were listed compared to 178 in 2024 for a whopping increase of 28%. This is significant and hopefully signals more homes for buyers to choose from. While this increase is not signaling the start of a buyer’s market, we are still hopeful for buyers’ sake that inventory will increase.
We are still seeing some homes selling with multiple offers. In 2023, sellers received 104.33% of their asking price compared to 101.31% in 2024. On the surface, one might think sellers are receiving less in 2024 than in 2023, however, the median sales price in 2023 was $500,000 compared to $533,000 in 2024 for a 6.6% increase. So, while sellers may not be receiving as much over asking price, their median sales price is still increasing.
I also looked at year-to-date stats and compared 2023 to 2024. I found that the median sales price in 2023 from January to July was $480,000 and in 2024 it was $509,085 for an increase of 6%. This is nearly the same increase month-over-month. This statistic could indicate the start of a trend, so we will keep a watch on increases.
The median number of days it took for sellers to sign contracts on their homes was 6 days in both years. This has been consistent for months.
What might this mean for buyers and sellers? For sellers, they can continue to price their homes based on market appreciation. A caution here, though - it still pays to be conservative when pricing. Let the “market” determine the price. There may be multiple offers or there may be one good offer. If a seller prices too high and must lower their price after a few weeks on the market, buyers wonder if there is “something wrong with the house” when what was wrong was actually the initial price.
For buyers, we can hope there will be more homes to choose from. Year-to-date there were 1,178 homes listed in Chittenden County in 2024 compared to 1,010 in 2023, a good sign for buyers. Also, interest rates recently dropped. This gives buyers more buying power, or if they want to stick with the same price range they were looking in at the higher interest rate, they will save on their monthly mortgage with the decrease in interest rates.
When rates drop, sellers feel more comfortable putting their homes on the market and buying another – it’s hard to give up a low interest rate for a high one, but if the rates come down a bit and a seller really needs to sell, they will. Again, this means more inventory for buyers to choose from.
It will be interesting to see if these trends continue.
