The latest Capital Region real estate numbers once again show sustained improvement in the Albany, Saratoga, and surrounding real estate markets. Overall across the region, pending homes sales in October jumped 17.0% from last October to 683 purchase contracts (these are not final purchases but contracts to purchase that a buyer offers and a seller accepts). The jump in pending home sales represents a 3 year high, and a marketedly different trend from 2011 and 2010 when pending sales both declined in October from the previous year. This is the twelveth consecutive month of pending home sales gain.

As buyers have picked up the pace inventory has fallen to a nearly 4 year low. The number of homes for sale in October plunged 14.2% from last year to 7,965. Housing inventory is well below the October inventory levels of 2011 and 2010 – 9,287 and 9,035 respectively. You don’t need an economics degree to know that as sales increase and supply declines, prices will increase. Inventory of homes for sale in 2012 has sunk over 30% in the last year and now sits at 11.1 months of supply. In other words at the current rate of sales, it would take 11.1 months to exhaust the current inventory of homes for sale.

The median sales price climbed 5.4% to $196,000. This is the highest October median sales price since before 2003 and the ninth consecutive month of median price gains. 

Within the Albany and Saratoga county regions, here is how some of the micro markets performed.

In the Clifton Park real estate market, new listings increased 24.5%, final sales jumped 77.8%, but the change in median price dipped 3.6%.

In the Malta real estate market, new listings grew by 37.5%, final sales slipped 20.0%, but the median sales price edged up 2.6%.

In the Saratoga Springs real estate market, new listings were flat, final sales increased 14.3%, and the median sales price grew 26.5%.

In the Bethlehem real estate market (including Delmar), new listings declined 7.3%, final sales increased 8.3%, and the median sales price climbed 2.2%.

In the North Colonie real estate market, new listings increased 10.0%, final sales jumped 45.5%, and the median sales price climbed 8.9%.

The links above link to current homes for sale in the respective real estate markets. 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.

Below is the latest Capital Region Real Estate Skinny from GCAR.