January 2024 Market Update
Hi, Chase Ames with the Ames Team Realty. Thank you for checking out our real estate market update for the month of January, 2024. Welcome to the new year and happy new year to you! Let’s start off with looking at last year’s, all of 2023 numbers as a market summary so you guys know what’s going on in the real estate world for Washington County.
Average/Median Sales Price
Last year, the average sales price came out to be $574,497. Compared to 2022, when it was almost $615,000, that was a decrease of about 6.5% with prices coming down right about $40,000 from what the average was for all of 2022. Now for the median price for 2023, it came out to be a median of $485,000 compared to about $525,000 in 2022, that was also a decrease of about $40,000. What’s interesting is the average price, when prices peaked back in the absolute peak of the market, back in spring to early summer of 2022, the average price in Southern Utah came down right about $100,000. So a lot of that came down really throughout the end of 2022. Then we saw, like we’re seeing here, about a $40,000 change throughout the year of 2023. Just for last month, it’s showing that there was a decrease in the average and median sales price just from December 2023 compared to December 2022. Now, we’re not really seeing that being the real case because there were just a lot more million dollar plus homes that sold in 2022, and also from November 2023 to December of 2023. That’s changing that number by quite a bit, and that’s throwing that number off, but we’re really not seeing the average or median price come down in the last 30 days, it’s really been quite stable.
Interest Rates
What’s really awesome to see is what’s happening with interest rates. Interest rates from about two months ago were up to almost 8.5%. Right now, they’re hovering in the high sixes to low sevens. So what that means for a buyer and the purchasing power is, if you look at a normal average loan price, let’s say $400,000, from when they peaked to where they are right now, that’s increased a buyer’s purchasing power by about $75,000, or that’s lowered their monthly payment by about $450 per month. So that’s been a big deal, it’s going to help a lot of buyers, and if history repeats itself, that’s going to be one of the biggest indicators that prices will be going back up. One of the reasons why prices got so high in 2022 was because interest rates got so low. It made it so affordable that prices just kept going up because of the low interest rates. Again, if history was going to repeat itself, with these interest rates starting to come down, that’s probably going to mean prices are going to be going back up. So now’s the time to be getting in and buying a home if you’re looking to buy.
Homes Sold
For sold listings in all of 2023, there were 4,540 properties that sold. Now, that’s only about a 4.5% decrease for all of 2022, when in 2022 there were 4,756 properties that sold. You’ll hear from the news; you’ll even hear from the realtors, and you’ll hear from all your neighbors that 2023 was horrible, the market was bad, nothing was selling, and it was a down market. That wasn’t really the case because only 4.5% fewer homes sold in 2023 than in 2022. It was actually quite a strong, good year with a lot of property moving.
Homes Pended
For pending listings throughout the year, there were 4,766 properties that pended, compared to 2022, when there were 4,578 properties that went under contract. That means there’s actually a 4% increase in the amount of properties that went under contract. Pretty surprising to hear when all you’re hearing on the news is that the market’s horrible and everything that everything’s terrible in real estate.
Active Listings
So for active listings throughout the year, there were 8,335 properties compared to in 2022, 7,937. That’s a 5% increase in active listings. Now for new listings that hit the market throughout the year, in 2023, there were 6,853. Compared to 2022 when there were 7,375 properties that came up on Market new, that’s a 7% decrease. You guys are probably expecting to hear that there are a lot more differences or bigger spreads in numbers over 2023 to 2022, but it’s not the case. It really didn’t change all that much, and the markets are quite strong. So expect for prices to be going up given that we’re expecting interest rates to be coming down. That’s not what we believe. That’s actually what we’re hearing and speculating from the Federal Reserve. They are announcing that they will be lowering interest rates, so if that’s the case, expect prices to be going back up. Thank you for a great year in real estate, and thank you for voting us Best of Southern Utah’s #1 Real Estate Team! We appreciate you and hope you have a great year! Please feel free to contact us at 435-674-6011 or simply respond to this email. Thank you!