Home Sales are Up.
Good News on the Home Front.
It’s good news when it comes to home sales. Nationally, home sales in January have been at the fastest pace since 2007. Even more impressive is that this is happening when mortgage rates are on the rise. The national association of realtors says home sales rose 3.3% in January from December. Not only that, but strong demand has pushed up median house prices 7.1% from January of 2016. However, the overall inventory of existing homes has remained low, at just a 3-6 month supply.
Things in the Augusta area are looking good. The Greater Augusta Association of Realtors reported the numbers for 2016 and here’s how they shake out. Last year, 8,084 single family homes were sold in the area. The last time it was this high was in 2006 (7,656 sales). The Augusta Chronicle reports that the average sale price for a home last year was $170,742, up 14% from 2009 when the market bottomed out and the average sales price fell to $149,691.
When it comes to new construction in our area things are slowing down. This is good for those of you wanting to sell your home. Single family building permits were down 6.5% in 2016 from the previous year and 33% from 10 years ago. Why the slow down? The local builders association says it’s due to cost pressures. However, some local real estate experts speculate that it could be due to an overzealous construction boom after the announcement of Cyber Command coming to Fort Gordon. Nationally, sales of new homes are up a bit, 5.5% since January of 2016.
At DeFoor Realty, our sales have remained really good. Residential sales stayed fairly constant during the recession but land and lake properties have increased dramatically since the 4th quarter of 2014. Prices are up some but not nearly at the level they were in 2006. They are trending upwardly but slowly. Buyers are still looking for deals. We are extremely fortunate to be in a position where growth continues to come our way. We also have great people who are committed to serve our buyers and sellers and do the right thing for them. Obviously we want to make sales but we will not compromise our integrity to do so.
The good news continues, as we are also blessed to welcome a new agent to our team. Ashley Caughman, has recently started with us. Ashley is new to real estate with a background in dental hygiene which she retired from after 22 years. She is a graduate from Evans High School and has a degree from the Medical College of Georgia. Ashley believes your home is where your journey begins and is excited to help people find their perfect home and build strong relationships with clients. You can read more about Ashley here.
We hope things continue on this positive trend and are looking forward to what this spring has in store for us.
– Lloyd A DeFoor.
