By Vicki Trapp, President
Greater Chattanooga Association of REALTORS®
In its entirety, 2013 proved to be a good year for housing. Home sales and prices were broadly higher across the nation, while foreclosure loads, the number of homes for sale and the number of days it took to sell a home were all much lower.
By last Spring, the term “multiple offers” was again being used in Greater Chattanooga. And now it is almost commonplace again for buyers to be competing for the same property. As a result, prices in many areas rallied to multi-year highs. This, of course, varied by location and segment, but the proverbial glass appeared to be more than half full throughout the year.
For December, New Listings in the Chattanooga region increased 3.4 percent to 602, which is in line with our year-to-date increase of 5.4 percent.
December’s Pending Sales were down 34.2 percent to 296 but still up by 2.5 percent from a year ago. Reinforcing that Pending Sales are trending towards being Closed Sales is December’s 8.2 percent increase in Closed Sales and the year-to-date increase of 8.4 percent.
Prices softened somewhat in December, which is typical during the holiday season when buyers and sellers are focused elsewhere. Thus, we saw a 3.2 percent decrease in Median Sales Price to $138,000.
Also typical for the holidays is a slightly longer Days on Market, which was up 0.8 percent to 134 days. However, absorption rates improved as Months Supply of Inventory was down 7.0 percent to 8.0 months.
Housing is fortified by confident consumers and good jobs. The year 2013 was marked by a slowly improving labor market stunted by political gridlock, and the Federal Reserve's long-awaited taper announcement was not surprising. Interest rates remain low (but upwardly mobile), prices are still affordable, the employment picture looks decent and the stock market is up nearly 30.0 percent from this time last year. It's no wonder that buyers were active in 2013. Here's to more of the same in 2014.