Summit County dollar volume rises but transaction numbers fall

Reversing the previous month’s results September Summit County real estate sales showed some signs of life in dollar terms but decline in transaction volume. Dollar sales totaled $174.2 million up 5 percent from the year ago period and an impressive 25% from July. While the magnitude of the sequential gain was unusually strong, the direction wasn’t as September is typically the strongest month for real estate closings. Transaction volume in September was up modestly a modest 5 percent from August but with 297 transactions, showed a 1 percent decline from the 2015 period. Year to date, both transaction volume and dollar volume are down 1 percent at 1,752 transactions $951.5 million.
The dichotomy between transaction volume and dollar sales in the month appears to be most attributable to mix. Sales below $400,000 were only 30 percent of the total transactions versus 46 percent for the prior seven months and 47 percent for all of last year. That segment of the market is seeing strong demand but low inventories have restricted sales in recent months. Conversely, virtually all price points up to $1.5 million were running ahead of the prior years contribution with particular strength in the $1-1.5 million range. Nevertheless, the average sales price for a single family home dipped from $935,883 in August to $922,641 in September. Even with the sequential decline that number was 8 percent of the average for all of 2015. Multi-family housing faired better with the average sales price rising 3 percent to $400,798, primarily because of the lack of very low end sales. That increase put the number just above the 2015 full year level.
Inventories, peaked in August but were 23% below the prior year peak. They declined 20 percent in September and are now 30 percent below the year ago level overall with single family inventory down 16 percent and multi– family off 39 percent.