Real Estate Recap October 2023

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it seems the same trends in real estate sales keep repeating themselves every month.  The big story when analyzing the numbers for October are still low inventories and higher prices.

We had 131 new listing come on the Haywood County market in October 2023, versus 127 new listings in October 2022, for a slight increase of 3.1%.  Even with that slight increase our month’s supply of inventory was 2.6 months, compared to a 2.8 month’s supply in October 2022.  A balanced market is usually defined as a 5 to 6 month’s supply.  (A balanced market is neither a seller’s nor a buyer’s market.)

In Haywood County 78 homes were sold in October 2023 versus 95 homes sold in October 2022, for a decrease of 17.9%.  This decrease was mostly due to the shortage of available homes for sale.  That shortage also resulted in a rise in home prices in October.  The average sales price in October 2023 was $473,879 compared to $369,049 in October 2022, for a whopping 28.4% increase year over year.

Last year in October, the average home was on the market only 35 days until sale.  This year the average days on the market increased to 51 days.

Interest rates are still over 7% for new home sales, which has definitely hindered sales, particularly for first home purchasers.  The higher interest rates are also keeping homes from coming on the market.  Many homeowners with mortgages in the 3% range do not want to sell their homes and risk having a 7%+ interest rate on their new home.

If you are considering buying a new home, or selling your current home, please let us know.  We will share our years of knowledge and help you negotiate this difficult market.