By Mark Hite
President, Greater Chattanooga Association of REALTORS®
The Greater Chattanooga Real Estate market just closed out its fourth consecutive year of home sales increases. The overall market posted a 9.9% increase in the number of homes sold in 2016 when compared to 2015. With 9,623 homes closing in 2016, the market has eclipsed the prerecession high sales points.
Demand for residential housing did not diminish despite a 19.8% decrease in the number of units available for sale. To give some perspective to this number, GCAR ended 2016 with 3,165 homes listed for sale which is in sharp contrast to 2013 when the year-end total stood at 5,148. The last time inventory levels hit this low point was in January 2005.
When we look at prices, we see the consistent march upward, as has been the trend over the last several years. The average price of a home sold in the Greater Chattanooga Market ended the year at $193,752. This price represents a 6.5% increase over the 2015 average home price. The market has recovered all of the losses incurred from 2009-2011 and this average price far exceeds the peak prices of 2007 and 2008.
It took just 65 days for the average home to sell in 2016. This shortened Days on Market (DOM) represents a 18.8% decrease when compared to 2015 and again a sharp contrast to 2012 when we saw the yearly average stand at 114 days and a peak in the spring of 2011 at 140 DOM.
A statistic that directly corresponds to DOM is the Months of Supply (MOS). Our market ended 2016 with a 3.9 Months of inventory on hand, again a sharp contrast to 2012 when we saw 8.3 MOS. Be sure to return to this space next week for a more in depth explanation of this term and why it is important.
Finally, the amount of negotiation taking place in the market decreased for 2016, as would be expected given the high demand and reduced inventory levels. For 2016 the overall market achieved 95% of the original list price, which is an improvement of .8% over 2015 and a dramatic improvement from 2012 when the average stood at 91.2% of original list price.