Home stats feel good in Edmond

EDMOND — Did you feel it? Edmond set home sale records in 2018.

It wasn't a huge market shakeup, but big enough for bragging rights, and it confirms my totally unscientific “feel” for the market.

That's all it is: I live in Edmond, and it felt like housing was in pretty good shape last year.

That's judging from the for-sale signs coming and going in my 1980s neighborhood and new construction, especially against the backdrop of national housing news, which isn't so rosy.

Broker Brian Preston, of RE/MAX at Home, 3224 S Broadway, Suite 225, has the numbers, and monthly commentary going back to 2011, at www.edmond4sale.com.

Despite a slowdown in December, for 2018 he logged:

• Most closed transactions in a year: 4,406, beating 2017 by 60.

• Most dollar volume closed: $1.272 billion, which was $38 million more than the record set in 2015 and $63 million more than in 2017.

• Average sales price: $288,000, which was $2,500 higher than the record set in 2015.

• Median sales price: $240,000, matching the highest set in 2015.

• Edmond also had more Realtors than ever: 945. “The records could have been a little bit higher but December fell well short in numbers compared to the last five years,” he wrote on his blog.

Active listings ended the year down at 1,278, he said, “a good number, not back to the sellers'-market lows of 1,050 in 2013 and 1,051 in 2005, but (the) best numbers since 2015, and a lot better than the 1,900s we had in (the) 2008 market.”

Preston's stats reflect something that Edmondites know: There's Edmond, and there's (upper) Edmond.

“Active listings (show) a

tale of two markets, in the same city, different markets over and under $400,000, and under even more so under $175,000,” he wrote.

The year ended with just 28 active listings under $150,000, a dozen of them under $100,000, and most of them one-bed condos. Only one sale was pending in that price range.

“For a few years now, we have had more pending contracts in $100,000-to-$175,000 than active listings, which we never had in the first 15 years I did this report,” Preston wrote. “Absorption rates for a couple of these price ranges is only two weeks. But if you are a buyer you find out it is more like 14 hours for a good house.”

By the way, $100,000-to-$175,000 is where I live, which explains my good feelings about the Edmond market.

But then there's Edmond.

“You get over $400,000 and you are looking at seven-plus months for absorption rates, and a year and up for over $700,000,” Preston wrote.

What's in store for 2019?

“(With) listings down and prices up, maybe I will be reporting another record year next year,” Preston wrote. “I know some Realtors and sellers have said (the) market is down because their numbers are down, or (they) cannot sell their home. But that is why I do this report, like Joe Friday: Just the facts. Show(ing) the numbers, and not what is happening to me alone, is the true market.”

I won't tell all Preston's secrets. Go to www.edmond4sale. com and check out his blog and report.