TRIANGLE BUSINESS JOURNAL
August 15, 2018
Homes sales across the Triangle slowed down in July, as they tend to do this time of year when the rush of spring and early summer homebuyers settles down.
But compared to July of last year, home closings were up more than 10 percent, helping to keep the year-to-date home sales just above last year’s pace, according to the latest numbers from the Triangle Multiple Listing Services.
Seven months through the year, home sales have increased 2.7 percent over the same point in 2017.
The relatively strong July numbers come at a time that housing markets across the country are grappling with higher prices and low inventories of homes on the market.
Sales of existing homes, also known as “resales”, had declined for three straight months through June. In the Triangle, resales were down 2 percent in the second quarter.
Similar to other corners of the country, competition in the Triangle home-buying market remains fierce. More than a quarter of homes sold above list price in July, while 11 percent of home sellers reported fielding multiple offers. Those rates have increased drastically in the past three years.
One Triangle housing analyst calls the current laws of supply and demand in the market an “economic conundrum.”
“The demand for a product has never been greater,” says Stacey Anfindsen, author of the Triangle Area Residential Realty, or TARR, report and appraiser with Birch Appraisal Group in Cary. Yet there aren’t enough homes on the market to match, he says.
It remains to be seen whether July's strong home sales numbers will continue. While a 10 percent increase compared to last year indicates growth, the number of new listings was down almost 3 percent.
