Comparing August of 2023 to August of 2024
I look at single family and condominiums together and compare August sales in 2023 to August of 2024. The important statistics I look at are how many homes were listed and how many sold; what the median sales price was; and what were the median days on market were, comparing year-over-year. I also look at what percentage of the sales price sellers received at closing.
In August of 2023 in Chittenden County, 195 homes were listed compared to 181 in 2024 for a decrease of 7%. However, more homes closed in 2024, 201 compared to 155 in 2023 for an increase of 21% in this year. This is a significant increase. Coupled with that, the median sales price rose from $470,500 in 2023 to $530,000 in 2024 for an increase of almost 13%. What could be behind the low inventory and higher sales? I believe this could be due to more homes pending in June and July that closed in August; we can surmise that more homes went under deposit in those months.
Median days on market until the seller received an offer were 6 in 2023 and 7 in 2024. Sellers received 103.92% of their asking price in 2023 compared to 101.47% in 2024. I attribute this to sellers pricing their homes closer to market rate.
In Franklin County, 71 homes were listed in 2023 compared to 86 in 2024. This is a 21% increase although from a number standpoint, we are only seeing 15 more listings in 2023 compared to 2024. Interesting that the trend was the opposite in Chittenden County where we saw fewer homes listed in 2024. I cannot draw a conclusion why that happened but will notice next month.
The median sales price in 2023 in Franklin County was $370,000 compared to $375,000 in 2024, not a significant difference. The percentage of the asking price sellers received was 101.18% in 2023 compared to 100.05% in 2024. Of significance was that sellers waited twice the time for an accepted offer in 2024. It took (median) seven days to accept a contract in 2023 compared to 14 days in 2024. On the other hand, 14 days is not a terrible time to get an accepted offer!
To get perspective on these statistics, I looked at the number of listings and sales in Chittenden County in 2024 compared to 2023, year-to-date. There were 1,360 homes listed in 2024 compared to 1,205 in 2023 for an increase of 12.8%. There were 1,040 homes sold in 2024 compared to 936 in 2023 for an increase in 2024 of 11%. These year-to-date statistics provide a big picture compared to one month. In other words, listings and sales continue to increase in Chittenden County. The median sales price year-to-date in 2024 was $511,000 compared to $480,000 in 2023, for a 6.5% increase. This is a healthy increase as it represents a less than 1% increase each month.
Prices are continuing to rise. Inventory still favors a seller’s market. Interest rates are coming down. An election year can bring unexpected changes in interest rates and the market in general regardless of who wins. We will watch carefully to see what changes the next months bring.
