Real estate sales in Summit County this year have followed a steady pattern of lower transaction volume but higher dollar sales. In July that pattern was broken with increases in both categories but August returned to the familiar design. While August transactions were up 19.7 percent from July, they were down 18 percent from the prior year period with 261 sales.
Dollar volume was up 41 percent from the July 2019 figure. However, it squeaked up only 1 percent from the year ago period to $259.1 million.
Not surprisingly year to date numbers show the same dichotomy. Transactions are down 10 percent while dollar volume is up 5 percent.
Relatively heavy activity at the high end of the market helped generate the overall rise in dollar sales. In August, there were nine sales of more than $3.0 million dollars. There had only been 16 such sales in the prior seven months.
Year to date average selling prices (ASPs) ticked up in August from the prior month in both the single family and multi-family categories. For single family, the year to date ASP is $1,307,236 in Summit County. That represents a 15.7 percent increase over a year ago. The ASP for multi-family properties hit $564,085. That represents a gain of 12.4 percent from a year ago. Raw land sales have averaged $328,602, down 13 percent.
Following its normal pattern, inventories peaked in August and have started their seasonal decline. Nevertheless, inventories are up substantially from a year ago. Overall, listings are up 52% from a year ago with 720 properties on the market. Notably, more than 100% of that gain is in the multi-family category. Listings of multi-family homes are up 112 percent from a year ago and fell by only 3 units in September to 480. Meanwhile, single family inventory is actually down 3 percent to 239 homes.