Spring felt like a failure to launch, which has led to a summer kick-off where the natural rhythm of the Carteret County real estate market simply feels off.
We thrive on predictability, and this current market feels uncertain. While new listings dropped to 87 single family homes. Month-over-month closed sales were up 15.8 percent, the average sales price dropped to $528,821 from $621,447 and days in MLS went to 46 average days as opposed to 31 days this same time last year.
Due to the lack of inventory, buyers are experiencing a bit of fatigue as they wait for either the perfect home or to uncover a good deal. When finding the right house, buyers are moving a bit more slowly. Active
listings at month-end dropped 9.3 percent month-over-month and year-over-year to 8 percent. Buyers aren't rushing to see homes as quickly and aren't submitting offers within hours. Conversely, sellers
are more realistic and strategize more with price reductions. If they are fortunate to find themselves in a multiple-offer scenario, they are more willing to address inspection items to move to the closing table. Real estate continues to be very neighborhood specific, especially for single-family homes. Two similar homes in different areas of town can perform widely differently, where one will receive multiple offers selling to the highest bidder and the other may linger on the market with multiple price reductions.
The real question is, what is the cost of waiting? If that perfect home comes on the market and a buyer loses it, how much is it going to cost in terms of rate, purchase price and time to wait before finding a similar house with this inventory? If a seller receives a low offer, how much will it cost over time with days in MLS and price reductions?
As an industry, we have been following the rise and fall of interest rates with bated breath for the last year. The fact is, many people are making real estate and mortgage decisions right now if they need to. The dramatic shift this year has been that people are no longer making real estate decisions because they'd like to. While many lenders still predict that interest rates will go down at the end of the year, we can only hope that we have an extended spring/summer season come fall.
If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.
