OCTOBER 2021 ROWLETT HOMEOWNER REPORT
We will start with interest rates.
We are still hovering around the 3% mark. About a week ago they went over 3% but then came back down. Rates for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage currently average 2.99% with .7% in fees and points. Freddie Mac, also known as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, predicts mortgage rates will continue to increase modestly which will have an impact on pricing and demand.
As far as the number of buyers in the market, we’re continuing to see decreases in mortgage applications. It’s 13% lower than it was this same time one year ago. More good news for buyers who are still in the market to purchase.
So let’s dig into the data for September and see how the market performed.
For this local market data, I use numbers from single-family home sales in Rowlett. These numbers are based on sales data from September.
The average sales price is at $369,497. That’s a 17.4% increase from one year ago.
The number of homes for sale is at 99 homes. We are down 20.8% in the number of homes available to buy.
Rowlett had 106 sales in September, a 1.9% decrease over last year.
Homes sold 65% faster in September than they did last year, and we averaged just 16 days on the market. It’s important to note that we jumped up substantially month-over-month on this metric. Last month the average days on market was only 10 days and in one month that went up to 16 days.
Our months of inventory went down from last month and we’re at 1.1 months of inventory. This number tells us that based on current demand, if no new listings came on the market, it would take a little over a month for all the current inventory to be purchased.
We listed 97 homes in September which is 3.2% more than last year.
Our average sales price per square foot went down from last month and is at $156 per square foot, a 20% increase from last year.
JAsond, I think in the video I say decrease. If I do say decrease, can you write on the screen:
Oops! It was actually a 20% INCREASE.
The Takeaway
So, is the market crashing. Let’s look at the facts: Interest rates are inching closer to over 3% and we still have less supply in the market that what we’re historically used to. BUT, prices are inching down (though they’re still well over last year’s averages), homes are spending more time on the market before homes go under contract, and we have fewer buyers. data points tell me that we aren’t crashing, we’re softening. If this trend continues for a few months, we might even be able to say it’s slightly correcting but we don’t anticipate prices going down too much because we still have that demand. Remember, we’re at 1.1 months of inventory and a balanced market is considered 6 months. So it’s still a great time to be a seller because the market is still on your side.
So, if you’re thinking of selling and want to know what you could sell your home for in today’s market, I want to get you that information.