Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Charlotte-area home sales down in May, but prices keep climbing - Charlotte Business Journal

Charlotte-area home sales down in May, but prices keep climbing - Charlotte Business Journal




Associate Editor/Online-Charlotte Business Journal
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Home sales in the Charlotte area declined in May from a year earlier, according to the latest market report from the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association.
The organization reports on residential real estate data tracked by Carolina Multiple Listing Services Inc. The Realtors group said Tuesday that 3,193 properties in the local market were sold last month, down 6.5 percent from May 2013.
The average sale price in the region inched up 0.9 percent to $235,109 in May, while the median sale price climbed 6.8 percent to $185,000, according to CarolinaMLS data.
Compared with April figures reported by the CRRA, both sales and prices increased in May.
“The CarolinaMLS region has enjoyed strong year-over-year sales for more than two years now," Joe Rempson, association and CarolinaMLS president, said in a news release. "Given the modest increase in sales in April and the fact that mortgage applications were down for much of May, signs indicated that sales this past month might not be as strong as May 2013. However, pending contracts are still signaling demand, which tells us that we should continue to see healthy sales levels moving forward.”
Preliminary pending sales counts for May totaled 4,016, an increase of 14.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the CRRA release.
New listings in the local market were down 1 percent from a year ago, while inventory has declined 3.3 percent, leaving the region with a 5.4-months’ supply of homes for sale. A housing supply of six months is generally considered a balanced market between buyers and sellers.
The area's average list price in May increased 7.2 percent to $285,377, with homes fetching 94.6 percent of the original list price and remaining listed for an average of 126 days.
Distressed activity continues to decline, with foreclosures and short sales accounting for 8.2 percent of sales closed last month, down from 10.5 percent a year ago.

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