What a month it’s been! As with most industries, we’ve been in a constant state of adjustment in response to the coronavirus here in our community.
Nevertheless, the Rutherford County real estate market again improved compared to last year in all key categories, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Numbers began to flatten, even trending down slightly, mid-month. Last year we saw a 22.53% jump in contracts from February to March, while this year we only saw a 11.54% jump. New listings, while also improved (4.14% over Feb.) were not as drastic an increase as 2019 (37.7%).
Taking a look at the daily Pending Contract data for the year we see the normal Spring incline in contracts (7 Day Average shown below) begin to trend back down mid-month. Obviously this was in response to the impact of COVID-19 in our community, however we’re still likely a month out from seeing the real impact on the local market. When the April Closing data comes in, we’ll have a much better barometer of how the market was really impacted by COVID-19.
Taking a look at Pendings by Day Of Week (shown below), we perhaps get a clearer picture of the COVID-19 impact on our market week to week. For instance Mondays, traditionally the best day for Pendings, was on the normal Spring incline until the past three weeks, which coincide with the pandemic’s growing impact in our local economy.
Regarding supply, most lower price points remain firmly in a Sellers Market, while the $600K+ price points continue trending further into a Buyers Market. Mid-range homes, price points $400-600K in our market, remain around what we at JJRE consider a Healthy Market, meaning a 4 month supply. See more on that data at www.murfreesborohomesonline.com/data
