October was a great month (relatively speaking) for real estate. After months of sales below the 10 year average, the last few months have been gradually improving and in October the sales for the region were finally above the 10 year October average. When compared to last October, sales were up over 45% and sales were up 9.8% over the 10 year average. That is a significant improvement.
A lot of this activity increase is likely tied to two things:
-a substantial number of buyers "getting off the fence" and moving forward rather than waiting for prices to go down further.
Despite the increases in sales volumes, homes are still usually selling below asking price. Having said that, we had 2 homes sell over asking recently (one way above what comparables suggested) and one sold for full price. If priced well and in the price points where there are a lot of buyers, multiple offers are happening. October was great but the overall market continues to be less active than we would like. There are some price points seeing most of the activity; with others still very stagnant. As a general rule, the more one has to spend, the better the "deals". Hopefully the positive market trend will continue over the next couple of months and into next year as buyers take advantage of low interest rates, reasonable selection, and the opportunity to breathe before making an offer!