On my webpage, under Resources, Market Reports, you’ll find a graph that looks like this… 

What does it mean? 

Some of it is self explanatory (the month/year is across the bottom, the number of homes is on the vertical axis). This graph uses data for residential homes only (no condos or vacant land). The light green bar represents the number of properties (number listed at top of bar) that are currently for sale as of the end of the month, and the dark green bar is the number of properties (number listed at the bottom of the bar) that sold in that month. The red line with the triangles represents the number of properties that are under contract by the end of that month. But what does this mean for you?

Let’s take a closer look at the dates across the bottom. We can use this to compare this year’s activity to last year’s activity. In June of 2015, more homes were available on the market, but fewer homes had sold when compared to June of 2016 (and more homes are under contract). This helps you look at the trend across time…overall, fewer homes are on the market, but more people are buying.

If you want to do a little math, you can find the “Months of Inventory”. The months of inventory is an estimate of how many months the current market can support the number of potential buyers looking to purchase property. Think of it as supply and demand…it can give you an idea of how long the supply will meet the demand. Now for the math to get there: Take the number of homes for sale (the light green bar number) and divide it by the number of homes sold (the dark green bar number). For June 2016, that would be 2329/1445=1.6. So there is enough supply to meet 1.6 months at the current demand for houses.

One last thing to leave you with: A market with 3 or less months of inventory is considered a sellers’ market (more favorable conditions to sell a home). A market with 6 or more months of inventory is considered a buyers’ market (more favorable conditions to buy a home). 3-6 months of inventory is considered a neutral market. Keep in mind, though, this is all an overview of all of whichever county you select to look at. Contact me for more specific information about the market and how we can leverage that to sell (or buy!) your home.