Hi, Chase Ames with the Ames Team Realty. Thank you for checking out our Real Estate Market Update for the month of December 2023. As we do each month when we do these, we are going to look at the last month’s numbers. We will be looking at November and comparing that to November of 2022, looking at what is changing and going on in the market space for the Washington County Multiple Listing Service. There have been some pretty interesting things happening since our last market update.
Average Sales Price
Just from October to November of 2023, the average sales price went up by $47,000 and the median price went up by $30,000. Now, that does not necessarily mean that the values have gone up that much. The reason why the average and the median price changed so much is because there were so many more million-dollar-plus sales compared to month over month from October. So values haven’t really changed, but there have been a lot of multi-million-dollar homes selling that have helped change that average price point. So, the average price point in Southern Utah right now according to the MLS is about $615,000 and that was the average sold price last month. Now for the median sales price it was $515,000 so really, it is a $100,000 spread compared to average over median.
Homes Sold
For sold listings, there was only about a 5% decrease from November of this year compared to November of last year. This is with 307 sales this November, compared to 324 this same month last year. Not a drastic change.
Homes Pended
For pending listings, properties that went under contract just recently, there was a 24% increase from this month last year, over just this past month. So, a lot of agents, a lot of the news, a lot of friends, family, they will say that the market’s horrible, that things are getting bad, that rates are stopping every buyer from selling. It is not true, because there was a 25% increase in pending sales last month compared to this month last year. And if you want to look at October of 2023 compared to October 2022, there was a 40% increase, so there is a lot of property moving.
Home Values
Now that being said, we’re not seeing a whole lot of changing in the values of pricing, but we are seeing a lot of price reductions. A lot of sellers aren’t getting the price they want, and of course that’s to a buyers benefit, so hopefully, and we are expecting rates to come down next year, if rates do come down or when they come down, expect prices to go back up. It is going to be a good thing. There have been a lot of buyers, a lot of them are really the same buyers from two years ago that were saying, we are waiting for prices to come down, prices are too high, we cannot afford to pay this, it is just ridiculous what prices are right now. Prices did come down. They came down by over $100,000 in St. George. And it was the increase in interest rate that caused the price to come down. Now a lot of those same buyers are now saying, well, rates are too high right now. I am going to wait for rates to come down before I buy. Again, rates will come down, but if rates come down, prices will go up. And again, the reason prices came down is because interest rates went up. So, any buyer looking interested in moving forward and making a purchase right now, now is the time. If I were personally buying, I would be buying right now because it is the right time. Rates will eventually come down and when they do, prices will go back up.
Homes Listed for Sale
For active listings, right now there are about 1,550 homes on the MLS compared to this time last year, it was over 1,700. So that is about a 10% decrease. That is helpful to a lot of buyers and really to a lot of sellers too, especially to sellers. Now for new listings coming on market, there is about an 8% decrease from November of this year to November of last year. So, a lot of interesting things are going on.
Interest Rates
Rates are in the low to mid 7’s give or take, depending on the day, but most buyers are moving forward and closing in the 6% range. With buy downs, with concessions, things like that, they are able to get a lot lower than the mid 7’s of what par is right now.
We would love to help you out with any of your real estate questions or needs. Call the Ames team, we are here to answer any questions you might have. Please feel free to contact us at 435-674-6011 or simply respond to this email. Thank you!