The State of Our Market

This week I will briefly discuss some market statistics regarding the sale of homes in Haywood County, NC.  (The Waynesville, Maggie Valley, Clyde and Canton areas)

According to Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors®, vacation home sales rose 57% this year compared to 2020.  This was attributed to flexible work options offered by many companies allowing employees to work from home.  A second reason may be urban residents fleeing urban areas due to the pandemic.  Whatever the reason, shortly after the pandemic began, buyers began buying vacation properties.  Of course our beautiful mountains brought lots of buyers our way; many purchasing with cash.

As a result of this influx of buyers two things happened.  Prices went up and the inventory of available homes went down.  The county-wide average sales price in July 2020 was $283,008.  By July 2021 this average sales price had jumped to $333,394.

Our inventory of homes for sale in July 2020 was 369.  By July 2021 our inventory of homes for sale dropped to 241.

A four to five months supply of homes is considered an average or neutral market.  In July 2020 we only had a 3.7 months supply of homes on the market.  By July 2021 this had dropped to a 1.9 months supply of homes on the market.  This is considered a “sellers’ market”, which explains the almost 18% increase in the average home sales price from July 2020 to July 2021.

If you are looking for that special vacation home, full-time home, or summer home, come on up to the mountains and let us help you.  If you don’t want to purchase a home right now, give some consideration to purchasing a home site to build on.  Prices for home sites and acreage have not increased like home prices.  Now may be the opportune time to purchase that home site, and build later.  We’ll be here waiting for you.