As you an imagine, the impacts of COVID-19 on our real estate market are impossible to predict with any certainty. Many, many factors influence the strong housing market going forward, but we are hopeful that indicators we track are positive…. low interest rate, high buyer demand, and substantial business and personal incentives to help stabilize the economy. That said, let’s look to the facts – the residential sales numbers for our MLS (includes outside Berkshire sales reported).
| Price Range | 2020 March | 2019 March | % Chg | 2020 YTD | 2019 YTD | % Chg |
| Sold Listings | 81 | 81 | 0 | 268 | 226 | 18.6 |
| Pending Listings | 90 | 134 | -33% | 293 | 307 | -4.6 |
| Active Listings | 722 | 896 | -19% | 1147 | 1363 | -15.8 |
| New Listings | 155 | 177 | -12% | 375 | 436 | -14 |
| Absorption Rate | 5.45 | 6.93 | -21% | 5.51 | 7.03 | -21.62 |
| Median List Price | $399,000 | $389,000 | 3% | $349,000 | $339,000 | 2.95 |
| Median Sale Price | $217,500 | $220,000 | -1% | $221,000 | $205,050 | 7.78 |
| Median Days on Market | 113 | 125 | -10% | 123 | 124 | -0.81 |
In March of 2020, we transacted exactly the same number of sales as in March of 2019 … and year to date, we are up 18% with a total of 268 sales reported as of today, April 2nd. The biggest surprise running preliminary numbers is that year to date residential sales topped $85.5 million dollars so far in the first quarter of 2020, compared to only $59 million last year. That’s a 44% increase over last year – Realtors have been BUSY! Not unexpectedly, going into April, our pending sales numbers are down from 134 pending sales last year to 90 this year. We also see a dip in inventory – no surprise that our bustling spring market is modest with many waiting for the state of emergency to conclude before listing their home for sale. We have a decrease in the number of new listings of approximately 12% compared to the number we typically see hit the market in March.