Hey everybody, it’s Austin Solomon. Welcome back to this week’s episode of The Real. Holy smokes, the last 3 months have been just a wild ride in the real estate market.
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If you’ve been following me, you know the last episode was on June 12th, it is October 5th and we are back in the studio! I took a 3 or 4 month sabbatical from The Real.
I’m glad to be back at it! Looking forward to bringing more value and content to you guys!
I’m going to start this out, this episode of The Real with a market update. Letting you guys know what happened over the past few months and where we are at now. Again it’s October 5th.
Right now in the greater Wausau area there are 436 homes on the market, 245 of those homes are under contract (56% of them) which leaves 191 homes available.
Let’s break down the market by the price point:
- Between $0- $100K there are 44 homes on the market (50% under contract)
- Between $100K – $200K there are 180 homes on the market (69% under contract), that $100K – $200K this whole year has just been a robust and very active market, consistently only 25-30% of those homes have been available at any point
- Between $200K – $300K there are 116 on the market (60% under contract)
- Between $300 – $400K there are 48 homes on the market (52% under contract)
- Between $400K – $500K there are 24 homes on the market (42% under contract), just to bud in here, that is a small number, earlier in the year we were seeing 40-50 homes in this range, so that’s not a bad price point, there is limited supply in that price point, just a quick observation
- Between $500K – $600K there are 10 homes, and 3 of those are under contract
- $600K+ there are 14 homes and 1 of those is under contract (7%)
So that’s the market by price point. In the last 30-days we’ve seen 150 new homes come on the market, 62 of those that have came on the market in the last 30 days are under contract. And in the last 30 days 152 homes have sold and are now closed.
In the last 14 days there have been 75 new homes on the market and 17 of those are already under contract and in the last 2 weeks 80 homes have sold.
I always like to look at this data and this statistic because it tells you how fast things are moving. Earlier this year we saw that properties would be flying off the market so a high percentage of homes that would come on the market would be under contract.
Right now what we are seeing is things are taking a bit more time to go under contract but things are still robust and the market is still hot. It’s just taking a little longer for properties to go under contract now then say 2-3 months ago. Which is nice in some facets because the market is not moving as quick, it gives everyone a bit more times to get into homes and see them and have a little more time to make decisions.
Alright, let’s talk about the market by numbers of showings. This is a small segment of the market, the amount of showings in the area over the course of the last 9 months.
- January: 581 showings
- February: 831 showings
- March: 765 showings
- April: 747 showings
- May: 1325 showings
- June: 1212 showings
- July: 1297 showings
- August: 1331 showings
- Sept: 948 showings
So you can see how things started to pick up in the spring like they typically do and COVID happened and really slowed down what usually would be a very busy March & April turned out to be a slower March & April.
Then May came around, the market when “gang busters” for … between May and August the market was really hot. The hottest we’ve ever seen. Now in September and early parts of October we see the seasonal slow down very slightly, we see things slowing down just a touch.
What do we know? So just some observation and summary points here. The market is still hot and things are still moving. It’s still a sellers market… the lack of inventory and we can see the inventory has been low. Just as a reference point, throughout the summer there has been around 500 homes on the market and now we are at that 436 homes on the market.
The inventory is still low, it’s still been the seller’s market. The demand for homes is still high and the interest rates are still low. Buyers are still getting good deals on interest rates and are actively looking to secure homes.
In the last few years, what we typically see is the market peaks in the spring and tapers down in the summer and… a more slight taper in the summer I should say and then again in the fall, and then a slow down during the winter months.
This year what we’ve seen is a slower spring with everything that is going on and then a very robust summer. And a very late, within the last few weeks, slight taper in the market.
Basically everything just kind of got pushed back a bit. It’s not the same marketing right now that it was 2 months ago.
For example, let’s say a home that was listed at $200,000 a few months ago, if priced appropriately, it might have had 3-4 offers on it. I would argue today if that same house was on the market, what would have had 3-4 offers on it 2 months ago, right now might only see 1-2. Things are still moving, but we have seen a slow down.
In the last 2 weeks, I have probably listed 10 homes for sale and based on that and knowing the activity levels and what’s happening with those homes, I can safely observe that if I would have listed those homes a few months earlier, we would have had more showings and more offers.
Now, in general these homes are still selling and instead of getting multiple offers, you get 1 or 2 good offers, which is still favorable for a seller.
The amount of activity is starting to taper slightly. Why? I would say seasonal change. Statistically, I would say each year there is a little bit of a slow down around the election time, which makes sense because there is a bit of uncertainty.
As a buyer, right now, if you’ve been kind of holding off as a buyer because the market has been so hot, it would be a great time to get in the market because we have seen a slow down. If you’re quick to get into a new home quickly and you make an aggressive offer, you can lock something down for a reasonable price.
As a buyer, if you’ve been waiting on the sidelines for awhile, it may not be a bad time to hop in.
As a seller, time is of the essence as we’ve seen the beginnings of a taper and what that looks like. Probably a bit of a slow down in the coming weeks and months, but still a great time to sell.
So that’s your market update video. Thank you for joining this week’s episode of The Real. I’m glad to be back at the studio and back on the show.
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Have a question or idea you’d like to learn more about? Email our team at austin@coldwellaction.com!
Austin Solomon | The Solomon Group – Coldwell Banker Action – (715) 212-4693