March 2020, Market Summary!

The supply situation is even more extreme than last month. Rapidly rising prices have done little to dampen demand.

The supply of active listings without a contract is down 42%, making life extremely difficult for buyers. New listings are still arriving more slowly than normal and year-to-date we have experienced a shortfall of 10% compared to 2019. Supply continues to fall quickly across most of the market with only the 55+ areas and the very high end maintaining a steady supply of active listings, albeit below normal.

New homes are increasing their share of the market but most of them are not listed on ARMLS so do not feature in the above numbers.

Higher prices are supposed to suppress demand, but they have not risen nearly enough to have any effect so far. Over the past month the Cromford® Demand Index has risen from 102.8 to 106.7. At the same time the Cromford® Supply Index has dropped from 47.7 to 45.8.

Rising demand and falling supply will inevitably lead to higher prices over the next few months.

Here are the basics - the ARMLS numbers for March 1, 2020 compared with March 1, 2019 for all areas & types:

• Active Listings (excluding UCB & CCBS): 11,003 versus 18,959 last year - down 42.0% - and down 8.1% from 11,974 last month

• Active Listings (including UCB & CCBS): 15,776 versus 23,197 last year - down 32.0% - and down 1.5% compared with 16,015 last month

• Pending Listings: 7,215 versus 6,119 last year - up 17.9% - and up 20.9% from 5,969 last month

• Under Contract Listings (including Pending, CCBS & UCB): 11,988 versus 10,357 last year - up 15.7% - and up 19.5% from 10,030 last month

• Monthly Sales: 7,450 versus 6,522 last year - up 14.2% - and up 15.3% from 6,461 last month

• Monthly Average Sales Price per Sq. Ft.: $185.11 versus $168.65 last year - up 9.8% - and up 1.6% from $182.20 last month

• Monthly Median Sales Price: $295,000 versus $264,000 last year - up 11.7% - and up 1.8% from $289,900 last month