Our team has been collecting and compiling real estate data for over 20 years. I’ve got some current information to share today for our Crystal Coast real estate market.

I’ll start with some summary statistics for the first quarter of 2019, which we compared to what we saw in the first quarter of 2019:

• Total inventory is down 30%

• New listings are down 22%

• Total unit sales are down 20%

• The average sales price is up 16%

We’re still in the strongest market we’ve been in since 2005, which is when the market last peaked. Then it declined until 2010, and we’ve seen steady increases since. Hurricane Florence caused 2018 to slightly underperform, and the lack of inventory in the first quarter of this year has constrained our unit sales compared to the previous year’s first quarter.

Based on the first quarter sales and given the existing rate of new listings and inventory, our 2019 annual sales conceivably will not meet 2018’s despite a large demand.

At 1:52 in the video above, you can see that the average sale price peaked in 2007 before decreasing through 2014. From 2015 on, the average price has been on a steady increase. For the first quarter of 2019, it ended up 10% higher than what we saw at the end of 2018. We believe this price will continue to rise as demand for inventory continues and we push toward a seller’s market.

At 2:27, you’ll see that our months’ supply of inventory ballooned from a historic low of 5.4 in 2005 to its peak of 21.4 in 2009. We’ve seen a steady decline in inventory since.

Historically, the industry has recognized a six-month inventory as balanced. This is a pivotal point because we’ve been under six months of inventory since October of last year, meaning we’re in a seller’s market.

Going forward, there are two big unknowns: the unmeasured impact that Florence has had on our inventory and the likelihood of increased interest rates. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage chart at 3:40 displays the steady run of recent historic low mortgage rates for the past 24 months. Rates bottomed out in the summer of 2016 at 3.44% and rose modestly but steadily in 2018 and ended at 4.64%. Surprisingly, rates have fallen each month in this first quarter. I still believe that modest rate increases will happen in 2019.

This means that if you intend to sell, now is the time. You can take advantage of the buyer’s ability to do more with their real estate dollar and cash in on that demand. You can get our full report on starteamrealestatereport.com.

If you have any questions for us in the meantime about the market or about anything else related to real estate, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.