We are halfway through the winter and it looks like people will be coming out of their homes soon, as Spring will be early this year. General Beauregard Lee didn't see his shadow, the vaccine rollout has started, and the housing market is still smoking hot.  I will be sharing information that is important to you should you be considering buying or selling a home in the near future.  I am going to be discussing the Bartow County housing market from January 2020 last year until January 2021 this year.  So let’s get started with the numbers.  

First of all, the number of homes available for sale has dropped 58%. There are only 147 homes currently for sale so there are less homes for buyers to choose from.   That is the least amount of homes for sale on record and we see this trend continuing.

Another important number in what we call months of inventory, or in other words, if no other homes come on the market, how long will it take to sell the current inventory.  Right now we are at 1 and a half months.  In a normal balanced market, that number should be 6 months.  So that means we are in a very strong seller’s market.

Another number we look at is how long it takes a home to go under contract. We are actually seeing a 19% drop in the average number of days, which is currently at 38 days. And in fact, half of all homes sell in less than 12 days.  Once again, that is the fastest we have seen on record.  

The number of homes that have sold so far this year is pretty much the same as it was last year.  There were 96 homes sold this January vs 93 homes sold last January.  We haven’t been seeing a huge jump in the number of homes sold just because there aren’t enough homes for sale to buy.  What we are seeing is buyers purchasing a lot of new homes because of the lack of available resale homes.  

And so lastly, what is this doing to home prices.  We saw an increase of a whopping 29% in average sales price to $271,000.  Part of this is due to an increase in home prices, but it is also partly due to a change in the mix of homes sold in Bartow. We are seeing more luxury homes being sold and less entry level homes being sold.  

The luxury market, as I will define as being over $500,000, has typically been a very small market in Bartow County. In the past two years, we have seen an explosion in high end homes as it has grown 259% to 59 homes sold last year.  

On the flip side, entry level homes, what I define as under $200,000, has been the staple of the Bartow County Market.  In 2018, entry level home sales accounted for 58% of all homes sold.  Last year, it accounted for only 38% of all homes sold and most of these homes are sold within hours of hitting the market.  There is simply not enough of these homes to supply the demand.  

The average 30 year mortgage interest rate has fallen a full point from 3.74% to 2.73%.  Record low inventory and interest rates are fueling this housing boom.  When will this frenzy end? It will happen but of course no one knows for sure. However, we do expect it to continue through 2021 and most likely through 2022.  Inventory levels and interest rates will tell us when the market will shift, so for current updates and projections, listen here to be the first in the know.

Don’t hesitate to call us to find out what your home could sell for in Today’s market and also how we specialize in coordinating the sale of your home with the purchase of your new home.  Feel free to like, share, and comment on this video and I look forward to connecting with you soon.