Latest home sales report show contradictions

The local real estate market is going strong compared to the rest of the nation.

With the summer selling season wrapping up, the housing market cooled for much of the country, but not in the Capital Region. Last month, closed sales jumped four percent over the previous August, to 1,183 houses sold in the region, according to the monthly report by the Greater Capital Association of Realtors. Pending sales increased 18 percent from August 2015, to 1,191 for the month.

The number of homes for sale was down compared to this time last year. Inventory levels marketwide decreased 24.7 percent, to 6,554 units. New listings dropped three percent from August 2015, to 1,652 homes placed on the market last month.

However, demand is showing no signs of changing as inventory continues to decline. While there were more sales, the average residential sale price in the Capital Region for August 2016 was about $225,000, down three percent from last August.

“As inventory continues to drop, the contradictions in this market are evident,” Greater Capital Association of Realtors president Marie Bettini of Albany Realty Group said in a news release accompanying the group’s latest report. “Sellers should feel confident enough to list homes at fair prices and receive meaningful offers in a healthy residential real estate market and overall positive economic environment.”

In Rensselaer County, residential sales were up by more than 30 percent from last August, with about 300 pending and closed sales last month with an average price was $197,541. In Albany County, meanwhile, where the number of residential listings was the same as last August, pending sales were up nearly 30 percent, though closed sales decreased by 5 percent. Average prices were down by 6 percent, as well, at approximately $228,000.

Capital Region sellers are receiving 95.2 percent of their original listing price, with homes spending an average of 63 days on the market before sale.

From August 2015 to August 2016, the state’s private sector job count increased by 120,400, while locally, the unemployment rate dropped from 4.3 percent in August 2015 to 4 percent in August 2016. But Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said recent job growth is not yielding higher home sales, as should be expected.

“Healthy labor markets in most of the country should be creating a sustained demand for home purchases,” he said in the release. “However, there’s no question that after peaking in June, sales in a majority of the country have inched backwards because inventory isn’t picking up to tame price growth and replace what’s being quickly sold.”

Greater Capital Association of Realtors CEO Laura Burns is optimistic that the market will remain healthy into the last quarter of the year, however.

“On a brighter note, building permits are trending upward,” she said in the release. “Demand is certainly present and has created competitive situations that have kept prices up.”