Report: Strong demand for housing

CAPITAL REGION, N.Y. » Another month of price gains in the Capital Region underlines the ongoing trend of strong demand and weak supply in the residential real estate market, according to a report from the Greater Capital Association of Realtors.

As sellers attempt to take advantage of rising prices, buyers may become more selective, the report said.

Months’ supply of homes fell by 26.8 percent to four months, impacting the inventory of homes for sale to decline by nearly 25 percent to 4,222 homes.

Pending sales rose by eight percent to 844 sales preparing to close.

As a result of the inventory reduction, prices rose compared to this time last year. The Median Sales Price increased six percent to $195,000 in January.

“Given the inventory, price increases are expected to continue throughout 2018. Nationally and locally the volume of new construction is starting to increase and will have a positive impact on our market,” Greater Capital Association of Realtors president Susan Sommers of Better Homes and Gardens Tech Valley said in a press release.

Usually the slowest month of the year, last month’s closed sales landed at 675 – a decrease of 4.3 percent from January 2017.

The number of new listings came in at 1,077 – a six percent dip over last January’s 1,144.

The Capital Region is not alone in the need for additional inventory. The local market is in step with real estate markets across the country.

January’s retreat in closings highlights the housing market’s glaring inventory shortage to start 2018, said National Association of Realtors chief economist Lawrence Yun. “The utter lack of sufficient housing supply and its influence on higher home prices muted overall sales activity in much of the U.S. last month,” he continued. “While the good news is that realtors in most areas are saying buyer traffic is even stronger than the beginning of last year, sales failed to follow course and lagged last January’s pace. It’s very clear that too many markets right now are becoming less affordable and desperately need more new listings to calm the speedy price growth.”

New construction and resale spent an average 68 days on the market, compared to last January’s reported 73 days on market. Buyer demand for new construction remains high causing new construction to experience even more activity with average days on market tumbling by 31 percent to 34 days on market.

The overall situation is result-

ing in Capital Region sellers getting good money for their homes. The percent of original list price received at sale rose to 94 percent since last year.

In Saratoga County, the average residential home went for $331,598, up 11 percent over $300,051 last January. Here, the number of listings stayed about the same while closed sales were down, but pending sales were up this January compared to last year.

To the south in Rensselaer County, average residential prices also rose 11 percent to $183,173 from $165,223 in that time frame. Inventory was steady, but closed sales increased by 15 percent.

Across the river in Albany County there was a four percent decrease in average residential home prices, landing at $234,254 for January 2018. New residential listings were down by 10 percent last month compared to the previous January, and closed sales were down, too, by four percent. However, pending residential sales rose by 10 percent.