The highlights for November were inventory and the median price. Inventory ended the month at 1,038, the first time it’s been above 1,000 units since November of 2020. As for the median price, it’s still holding in pretty much the same range since April of 2022. While showing an increase from last November, new listings, pending sales and average days on market all declined from the previous month. New listings were down 12%, pending sales were down 4.3% and average days on market were down 19%. Closed sales, however, were up 1.4% from a year ago and 16% from this October.

“I think the slowdown in new listings and pending sales from October are another indication of the market returning to pre-pandemic behavior as both buyers and seller shift their focus to the holiday season,” said Adam Ruud, managing broker and owner of Domain Realty.

“Overall the market feels much healthier now than where it was a year ago,” said Steve Kolenda, managing broker for Berkshire Hathaway Florida Realty’s Bonita Springs office. “It’s great to see a larger selection for buyers while maintaining strong price points. In many ways it’s a win-win scenario.”

Looking at November of 2022 compared to November 2023, the market showed positive gains for new listings increasing 21.9%, pending sales units increasing 4.7%, closed sales units increasing 1.4% and median closed price increasing by 12.2%. Despite the many positive increases, days on market also increased from 32 days to 51 days. This figure, historically, is still not bad. Sales price as a percentage of listing price decreased by 1.1% and the percentage of cash sales decreased by 7.6%.

There is a lot of speculation regarding 2024 and where the market will go. Many local brokers and realtors applaud NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun and other leading housing analysts that better days are ahead for the real estate market nationwide.

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), “Mortgage rates likely have peaked and are now falling from their recent high of nearly 8%. NAR predicts the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to average 6.3% in 2024; realtor.com projects 6.5%. This likely will improve housing affordability and entice more home buyers to return to the market, Yun says. NAR’s data shows that rates near 6.6% enable the average American family to afford a median-priced home without devoting more than 30% of their income to housing, the threshold commonly used to measure affordability.

NAR is projecting that existing-home sales will rise 13.5% and new-home sales — which are up about 5% this year, defying market trends — could increase another 19% by the end of next year.” ¦

Courtesy of NAR