Everyone is looking for a sign that the real estate market is beginning to pick up. We posted a blog late last week talking about Housing Starts and the Housing Market Index---both of which show the market is beginning to improve. But sometimes you need cold, hard facts that show proof of recovery, not fancy indeces. Well today's OBX real estate report shows just that. In the past we have given you only weekly snapshots; but going forward, we will also provide a YTD comparison to prior year--so we can track the recovery in our local market. Remember, real estate is local, not national--and in the end, that is what matters most to OBX property owners.
For the week ending February 18th, we saw a big improvement over prior week, with 75 new listings compared to 50. This also is the largest number of new listings for any single week YTD. The biggest improvement is actually in lots and land, with 25--prior to this, the biggest week was early January, with 16. We also had 30 properties that went under contract, mostly residential, with 27. That number (27) represents the highest number of residential properties under contract (on a weekly basis) this year. And sold properties have followed the trend. Twenty-six total, with 21 being residential.
Now lets compare that to last year. YTD, there have been 380 new listings compared to last year--a 3.5% increase. We believe that shows that consumers have more confidence that they will get a fair price for their home, or perhaps that they are taking this opportunity to "move-up". More importantly, there is a 20% increase in properties that have gone under contract, and a 7.3% increase in sold properties. Finally, there has been a 13% decline in expired listings.
No one believes that there will be a miracle turn-around in the market, but I'll take a slow steady increase any day!