Those numbers are likely the result of a dip in interest rates, said Greg Blatt, Dayton Realtors’ immediate past president.
“In the first quarter, rates have dropped down to almost six and back up a little bit, back down a little bit, back up a little bit, back down a little bit,” he said. “Some lenders were down as low as five and three quarters.”
The average sales price year-to-date is $266,844 and represented a 13% rise over 2023′s year-to-date numbers. The median sales price also grew, going from $198,000 through March 2023 to $225,000 through March 2024, also a 13% increase.
March helped fuel the year-to-date success, with a total of 1,197 transactions were reported in March, a 5.5% increase over March 2023.
Last month, which was the third consecutive month of an increase in year-over-year sales, also saw residential sales price continue to rise. The average sale price for single-family homes and condominiums in March increased to $278,971, up 13% from last January, while the median sale price also improved, reaching $232,000, also up 13% from last year.
There were 1,432 new listings added in March, up only nine listings from last year’s 1,423. Year-to-date listings saw 3,858 listings, an increase of 9.3% from the figures submitted through March of last year, or about 109 listings a month, Blatt said.
“The actual solds was about 400 units different quarter over quarter, so it kind of correlates, those two,” he said. “I would like to say that’s a good thing and that’s a trend. We’ll see as we go into the end of the market a little farther, into the spring market and the summer selling season, if those numbers improve at all.”
Total available active inventory was 1,398 by the end of March and represented a little more than one month’s supply of listings based on February’s resale rate. A normal market inventory supply of homes is approximately three months, Blatt said.
“We would hope that listing inventory has been improved, because we still have a very short inventory level. Demand is still very high. We’re still strongly in a seller’s market, so we haven’t seen things stabilize or shift into more of a stabilized market.”
Austin Castro, a team leader at Coldwell Banker Heritage, said buyers and sellers are continuing to realize that these prices are the new norm.
“Last year, everybody was under the pretense that there was going to be some massive reset,” he said. A lot of consumers thought that prices were going to dip severely and people realized that they didn’t.
“Interest rates went up, and they’d have been better off buying a year ago, and so now you’re seeing people just kind of get back into the game and say ‘OK, this is what the new baseline is.’”
Castro said the current home buying market is not as one-sided as it was in 2022.
“It’s not the 20 offers on one house, no inspections, no appraisal,” he said. “What will get us back there is if we see some big drop in rates again. I think buyers are realizing ‘Hey, I’d rather buy now where I’m not having to go crazy big on giving all these concessions to the seller,’ and then if rates come down I’ll (refinance) and if not, I can you know I can sustain what I’m purchasing now.”
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