May continued the pattern of seasonal improvement in Summit County real estate sales but the year over year comparisons were less than spectacular for the third month in a row. Total volume rose to 197 transactions up from 155 in April. The May 2016 number, however, was 4% below the level of a year ago.
Dollar volume also rose nicely month over month from $89 million in April to $114.9 million in May. Again, however, May 2016 was down from the year earlier month, declining by about 1%.
With three months in a row of lackluster year-over-year comparisons, the year to date numbers also are showing little progress. Total dollar volume is up 3% to $420.5 million while transactions are essentially flat at 738 vs 740 at this point last year.
While recent sales growth has been tepid, new listings have exploded. As a result, inventories are up sharply. This is especially true for single family homes. Across the county 49 single family homes went under contract. Over the same 30 days, there were 121 new listings. As a result the inventory of single family homes is up better than 20%.
So far this year, the average selling prices for single family homes has been up quite substantially. Year to date, that number stands at $934,437. That is up 8% from a year ago and 9% from the full year 2015 figure. With the rising inventories and sluggish sales growth, that number is likely to drift lower in the coming months if sales activity doesn’t improve.
Multi-family pricing hasn’t kept up with the gains seen in the single family market. In fact, so far this year the average price for a multi-family property was $397,071 versus $399,499 at this point last year and a similar number for all of 2015.
Year to date the mix of sales has skewed a little upward. Lower priced properties – under $400,000 – are running behind the level of a year ago while properties over $1 million are somewhat ahead. This year there have been 4 sales over $3 million totaling $18 million versus 6 totaling $20 million all of last year.
To receive the full newsletter with real estate stats, market trends and featured properties click here to register.