February Summit County Real Estate Shows Strong Gains

Defying the more typical pattern, February Summit County Real Estate sales were in line with those realized in January. Dollar volume rose $1.8 million to $89.4 million while transaction volume dipped by 7 sales to 139 transactions. Last year February showed a more normal pattern with sharp declines from the January levels. As a result, the year over year comparison for February 2018 wound up double digits. The number of transactions increased by 19.8 percent versus a year ago while total dollars increased 25.7 percent.
After the first two months, sales are up 9 percent in dollars and 12 percent in number of transactions.
After ticking up in January the year-to-date average selling price (ASP) for single family homes dropped by 1.5 percent from the year ago level to $1,138,555. However, that figure was still 4.7 percent of the average for all of 2017. Conversely, the ASP for multifamily properties rose 23 percent versus February of 2017 and is up 12.8 from the 2017 full year. With only two months under our belt, the sample size is still too small to draw any meaningful conclusions but it certainly feels as though the low level of inventories are continuing to bolster prices.
After ticking upward modestly in February the number of active listings dropped again during March. While multi-family properties for sale were essential flat at 177, the number of single family properties available for sale actually dropped from 146 to 137. That puts single family listings 9 percent below a year ago, multi-family 14.1 percent lower and overall listings 12 percent under March 31 of 2017. We do expect that as the ski areas close later this month, more properties will come out of the rental pools and be placed on the market. Although we expect this seasonal improvement in inventories we also anticipate that levels will remain near historical lows for their respective time of the year.