Dec. 28—GOSHEN — Inflation extremes may be coming to an end in the near future, according to a recent housing market report by the Elkhart County Board of Realtors.
"The local housing market is undergoing changes to match the changes in the economy," a press release issued by the organization stated. "Many of these changes are positive including an increase in Days on Market that allows a buyer and seller time to make an informed decision."
Board president Nic Wyse said numbers are down nationally, at a state level and at a county level, with average sales down by as much as 25% as compared to November 2021, which was unseasonably strong.
Whereas in November 2021, Elkhart County home sales were 218, this November, the number dropped to 154, an almost 30% drop. A decrease sounds like a bad thing, but according to Wyse it's more complicated than that.
"The interesting thing is people are starting to feel like it's a turn of the market and it's no longer a seller's market — but I'm not so sure of that," he said. Wyse explained that one measure of that is the number of days a home stays on the market. Ahead of the recession in 2006, homes were on the market for about 80 days. That length of time increased to as much 153 days on average during the recession in March 2012. Today, for the third month in a row, the average number of days on the market is just 20 days. Still, Wyse feels it's improvement last year, when during some months, the average number of days on the market was as low as 12. A year ago in November, it was just 16 days.
"We're at a quarter of what it was then which lends to the fact that it's still a seller's market," he said. "The low inventory of homes also lends to that. ... The buyers that are out there are still buying rather quickly."
The percentage of the sale-price-to-list price also remains high but is showing change beneficial more to the buyer.
At its high point since the recession, in November 2021, SP/LP was at 100.59%, meaning buyers were purchasing homes above the asking price more often than not or some substantially above the asking price. As of November 2022, that percentage has gradually decreased to 98.28%, with normal being around 95%, and a struggling market closer to 90%, Wyse explained.
In addition to that, everchanging interest rates continue to have a huge impact on the market. A year ago, interest rates dropped to 3% when they've been slowly climbing and are currently at 6.4%.
"We're still experiencing a lower inventory and I think a part of that is driven by people that are locked in because they refinanced, so they're not enticed (to sell) at all."