Home sales in May again increased, during the month of May. Once again, Closed Sales rose 8.9% topping out at 683 residential homes sold. New Listings in the Chattanooga region were up 5.6 percent to 1,146. Inventory shrank 8.1 percent to 4,876 units.
Prices moved higher as the Median Sales Price was up 5.2 percent to $144,000. Days on Market decreased 2.4 percent to 122 days. Months Supply of Inventory was down 15.7 percent to 8.6 months, indicating that as always, demand increased relative to supply.
Officials said, "We're halfway through the year and it seems our collective attention has shifted from monitoring price and sales gains to eagerly anticipating more new listing activity on the part of sellers. This shift is the result of an imbalance between strong demand for homes and constrained supply. In some markets, purchase agreements are being written up directly after a showing. Your experience and local market conditions may differ, but the market as a whole has summertime heat."
GCAR President Mark Blazek added, “Interest rate risk is back in the headlines after Fed chief Ben Bernanke's latest testimony on Capitol Hill. The Federal Reserve Bank is considering decreasing its $85 billion a month bond asset purchases, which have been holding interest rates at or near historic lows. This is mostly the result of an improving jobs market, which is a good thing for real estate.”
Source: 10k Research and Marketing