January 2020 Market Reports

Housing Supply Overview

As the cost of renting continues to increase, consumers have more incentive to lock in their housing costs by purchasing a home. The latest CoreLogic Single-Family Rent Index report released this month saw the cost of renting single-family homes, including condos, up 3% in November 2019 versus November 2018. According to CoreLogic’s data, single-family rents started climbing in 2010 and have stabilized around an annualized rate of 3% since early 2019. For the 12-month period spanning February 2019 through January 2020, Pending Sales in the Western Upstate region were up 4.0 percent overall. The price range with the largest gain in sales was the $150,001 to $200,000 range, where they increased 17.7 percent.

The overall Median Sales Price was up 4.8 percent to $181,900. The property type with the largest price gain was the Condos segment, where prices increased 7.3 percent to $139,500. The price range that tended to sell the quickest was the $100,000 and Below range at 84 days; the price range that tended to sell the slowest was the $300,001 and Above range at 120 days.

Market-wide, inventory levels were up 7.0 percent. The property type that gained the most inventory was the Condos segment, where it increased 23.6 percent. That amounts to 3.9 months supply for Single-Family homes and 5.0 months supply for Condos.

Monthly Indicators

For 2020, The National Association of REALTORS® Chief Economist Lawrence Yun sees good news for home prices. “National median home price growth is in no danger of falling due to inventory shortages and will rise by 4%,” the long-term NAR economist predicts. He is also expecting the new-home construction market sales to increase 10%. Yun and others would like to see home builders bring more affordable units to market to help ease shortages and slow price gains in that segment.

New Listings were up 0.2 percent to 625. Pending Sales decreased 42.7 percent to Inventory grew 7.0 percent to 1,888 units.

Prices moved higher as Median Sales Price was up 1.7 percent to $178,500. Days on Market decreased 20.0 percent to 96 days. Months Supply of Inventory was up 2.6 percent to 4.0 months, indicating that supply increased relative to demand.

We start off the year with continued low interest rates, low unemployment, and rising rents nationally. These factors should encourage healthy buyer demand and sets us up for a strong start to the 2020 housing market and a lot of optimism for the coming spring market.

Click here to download the January 2020 market reports.