I’m still pondering what makes this market a mystery.The mystery is more apparent in the Watauga housing market than the Ashe housing market. That is, the stats – what’s up, what’s down, what’s holding steady – are all over the place, in inconsistent ways to what we usually see.The number of new home listings is up, and by August that’s usually tapering off from the Spring spike. The media would tell you sellers are listing now due to the increased value of homes, and wanting to capitalize on that.But the sellers I talk to are all getting ready to list because something has changed in their lives, and selling fits in with their new life course….The average number selling per month is down, yet more homes are under contract [quite a few more] and the number closed in August is up.
If the number of homes projected to sell in the next 90 days [See ‘The Pond-Projection’ graph below] is accurate, the number on the market may show a fairly significant decline in 3 months.
You’ll see from the ‘Average Time to Close’ graphs below, that the days to close in the Watauga market is slightly longer in 2023 than 2022, but that the average market value of homes continues to increase, from an average closed value of $692K in 2022 to an average closed value, as of August 2023, in 2023 of $755K. The increase in value is despite, overall, selling less homes in 2023 than 2022.
