Wondering what's happening in the East Tennessee real estate market? Check out our market snapshot, and if you have questions, reach out to your Wallace Real Estate agent for more info!
Even though we're in a low inventory environment, we had more new listings entering the market this year than we did last year. October typically marks the month before the steeper seasonal decline of new listings through the end of the year. Looking at history, we may not reach this number of new listings in the market until March, which is the start of the spring sales season.
That means that buyers could have fewer fresh choices, even though demand continues, which could either keep prices stable if buyers decide to wait for properties to come on the market, or prices may increase if buyers decide to proceed with purchasing existing inventory through the winter.
When it comes to active listings, we've seen steady increases since April. We haven't seen the same bell-curve shape as more “normal” years strictly due to the fact that fewer homes are being sold thanks to high interest rates and prices. Still, sales haven’t fallen to recession levels and are still happening. We seem to be on the track to land with about as many active listings as we had at the end of 2019, before Covid changed the market dynamics.
Our sales pending was almost identical to September and October of 2018, arguably a time when we considered the market to be normal and healthy. This proves that even though homes cost more to purchase, buyers are still buying.
Closed units is the lowest number we’ve seen in a six-year run, down a bit from last year. I attribute this 100% to current prices and interest rates. It has slowed buyer activity for sure. But, what are the long-term effects of this slowed activity? Once interest rates stabilize, will we have a bottleneck of buyers competing for listings again? Time will tell.
We have about 4 months of supply, which means that if no more new listings came on the market but we continued to sell at the current pace, we’d be out of things to sell in 4 months. This number may increase through the winter, with a high point in January if the trend continues.
Median Sales Prices actually went back up from $340,000 to $350,000 month over month. But what I see here is a very stable line. So, while sellers could reasonably expect to make the same amount that they would have if they sold six months ago, they can’t necessarily push their asking price up as quickly as might have been acceptable in 2021. Wondering what your home is worth? Click here to get a free valuation!
This October marks the second fastest October, with sales happening at a faster pace than we did in any previous October with the exception of 2021 when things were moving at a blistering pace. This is another statistic that shows up in favor of continued buyer demand and market health.
*Data reprinted with permission from East Tennessee REALTORS®
