The Capital Region is now a full year into the housing market recovery and the steady improvement continues. The usually quiet month of January, ushered in 629 purchase contracts for a 17.4% increase in pending home sales as compared to January 2012. This was the highest January pending sales number since 2007, notably before the great recession. This six year monthly high for pending home sales further supports the growing trend of increased buyer activity. Buyers understand, and rightfully so, the train has left the station and the Capital Region housing market is picking up steam. Whereas there may have been some debate 12 months ago as to where the regional housing market was heading, now even the skeptics agree home prices are on the rise.
The January median home sales price increased 3.7% from January 2012 to $180,000. In Saratoga County the median sales price rose 3% to $256,000 and in Albany County the median sales bumped up 1% to $180,000. But why are prices rising?
Prices are rising because of the overall improvement in the economy, the strong performance of the stock market, growing consumer confidence, and most notably the shrinking supply of homes. The supply of homes over the last year was fallen for 14 consecutive months to 9.0 months of supply. Or in other words, at the current inventory and rate of sales it would take 9 months to exhaust the supply (I’ve also referred to this as the home absorption rate – the rate at which the all of the current homes would be absorbed by the current buyers).
This is the lowest number of January homes for sale in five and half years. Over the next few months the monthly supply of inventory will certainly grow as more sellers put their houses on the market. Although the 9.0 monthly supply of inventory is slightly higher then the ideal bench market of 6.0 months, new inventory is desperately needed. Many buyers are waiting to purchase, but there just isn’t much out there to meet their criteria. Sellers sense this pent-up demand, and so we should expect to see more inventory in the coming months.
Within the Albany and Saratoga county regions, here is how some of the micro markets performed. Take the micro numbers with a grain of salt, as the sample sizes for each region are relatively small with just a couple dozen sales (at most) in the larger micro markets. Click on the links below in each local real estate market for all of the current homes for sale in that respective housing market.
In the Clifton Park real estate market, new listings remained flat, final sales jumped 56.5%, but the change in median price fell 8.7%.
In the Malta real estate market, new listings shrunk by 9.1%, final sales grew 33.3%, and the median sales price swelled by 21.4%.
In the Saratoga Springs real estate market, new listings increased 17.5%, final sales exploded by 61.5%, and the median sales price jumped a modest 9.1% (modest compared to the exceptional Saratoga County numbers).
In the Bethlehem real estate market (including Slingerlands, Glenmont, and Delmar), new listings declined 22.2%, final sales increased 23.8%, and the median sales price jumped 14.7%.
In the North Colonie real estate market, new listings grew by 19.5%, final sales contracted 35.7%, and the median sales price climbed 47.5%.
In the City of Albany real estate market – the area with the lowest inventory of active homes for sale – new listings only edged up by 1.6%, final sales swelled 23.8%, and the median sales price bumped up 2.2%.
For more detailed market numbers, you can visit the Albany County market page or the Saratoga County market page, with links to the specific micro markets.
