Charlotte Realtors: January home closings level off year-over-year - Charlotte Business Journal

Charlotte Realtors: January home closings level off year-over-year - Charlotte Business Journal

Susan Stabley

Staff Writer-Charlotte Business Journal

Email  | Twitter  | Google+

For several months, Charlotte-area home closings have grown by leaps and bounds, often posting double-digit increases every month from a year earlier.

But the Charlotte Regional Realtors Association’s monthly market activity report released today shows that January’s home sales have flattened out from the same time a year ago. The association’s preliminary data is up only 0.4 percent from January 2013, with 2,169 homes sold last month, edging upward from 2,161 a year ago.

The association tracks activity in the 10-county Charlotte region.

“We expected sales to slow a bit in January, given the colder-than-usual weather and the fact that the traditional selling season hasn’t truly started,” Joe Rempson, president of the association, said in a release about this month’s report. “However, people looking to list their homes should take note that present market conditions favor sellers.”

The average sale price jumped 15 percent last month to $217,109 from January 2013but showed a decline from December’s average price of $224,128. The median sales price — considered a more accurate measurement — had 11.8 percent year-over-year growth to $167,646, which was also a decrease from last month’s median price of $172,500.

January’s average list price of a home in the Charlotte region was up 7.6 percent to $246,506 from the same time last year. And the number of pending sales had an annual increase of 6.2 percent to 2,778 from 2,616.

New residential listings hit 4,027, up 2.3 from last year, while inventory fell 6 percent. The Charlotte region, as tracked by the organization, now has a 4.7-month supply of homes for sale.

Properties are remaining on the market an average of 143 days from listing to closing, a decline of 12 days from the January 2013 level, according to the report.

Foreclosures and short sales represented 7.6 percent of the market’s new listings and 10 percent of all closed sales in January, according to the report.