The pattern of Summit County real estate sales is starting to sound like a broken record. Once again in April, transaction volume fell. Dollar sales still managed to eke out a year over year gain. In April 2019, total residential transactions, while up 23 percent from March, fell 19.8% from a year ago to 166 sales. In contrast, dollar sales were up better than 50% from March and showed a positive comparison of 3.4 percent versus the April 2018 figure. April was the seventh month in a row to post declining volume while dollar sales were down in only two of the months.
Year to date, transaction volume is down 10 percent with 571 sales. Over the same time, sales in dollars are up 15 percent totaling $573.5 million.
Sales Mix Focuses on Higher End
Given the dichotomy between the transaction and dollar volumes it is not a surprise the mix of sales has shifted to the higher end of the market. Year to date, all price points below $500,000 are below their historical norms as a percentage of the over all mix. As a whole this segment represent 37.2 percent of total sales in 2018 and going back to 2015 the figure was 70 percent. This year, the number is 33.3 percent.
Average Selling Prices Rise
Average selling prices are also on the rise. As of April the average selling price for a single family home in Summit County was $1,303,361. That represents an 18.8 percent increase over a year ago. Multi-family prices are also on the rise though more modestly. Year to date, the average price for a multi-family property was $564,025. That is an increase of 7.6 percent from a year ago.
Inventories Up Sharply
Listings bloom like flowers in the Spring and are up quite sharply. Overall, inventories as of June 1 were up 21.5 percent from May 1. They are up 29.7 percent from a year ago with 559 total listings. The bulk of those gains were in multi-family properties which are up 46.7 percent from this time in 2018 and account for 62.4 percent of all residential listings. Single family inventories are up a much more modest 5.1% .