It’s time to look back and recap last year’s market. You’re in luck today because we are talking about stats; I can tell that you’re excited. Let’s talk about the numbers from last year, how they apply to you, and what they mean for our market looking forward.
If you were around in the housing market in 2006, you remember how crazy it was. Well, 2021 was almost the same. It was short a few thousand homes sold, coming in at a little over six million homes. That’s in a year of supposedly low inventory!
Because of people's perspectives on the availability of homes, prices went up. In December, we saw things slow down a little bit, but the market still stayed relatively strong. The median home price nationwide was $358,000 at the end of last year, which was up around 16% from December 2020. The bottom line is that house prices are still going up. People built up a lot of equity last year, especially compared to more normal markets where we only see 3% to 4% appreciation.
“You definitely get your money’s worth when you pay for an agent."
Total housing inventory is way down, but keep in mind that it’s not that there aren’t houses for sale. There is a ton of demand, so homes sell quickly and don't stay on the market very long.
Almost 80% of the homes sold this past December were on the market for only about a month. The average was 19 days on the market, which is really fast. First-time homebuyers were about a third of the market. That is up from the year before, so it’s good to know that those first-time buyers are getting a chance. About 17% of homes were purchased with cash, which could be investors in our market.
If you look at the South, existing-home sales slowed down in December, but our median home price stayed at $323,000. It’s a little bit of a decrease, but there was still a lot of growth over the past few years. We’re also seeing a lot of growth because people are moving into our region right now.
If you’re looking to sell your home, you could never find a better time to do so. If you don’t know where you would go after you sell, there are more opportunities to buy right now than there have been in a long time. 2022 is your year to make this happen; you can sell at the peak price and buy while rates are still low.
If you want to take advantage of this opportunity, you need to give me or my team a call now at 423-593-5588. We’d be glad to walk you through the whole process.
