I have been fielding a lot of questions regarding the local real estate market in St. Augustine due to the current climate. Is this going to be a buyers market or stay sellers, and should sellers hold off on listing right now?
We started to feel the impact of the coronavirus here locally about three weeks ago so I wanted to look at the stats over the last few weeks to paint a picture of what I am seeing and expecting to happen.
I am looking only at residential single families, condos and townhomes in St. Augustine zip codes 32084, 32086, 32080, 32095, and 32092. This is a broad look at St. Augustine as a whole. If you need specific information on specific neighborhoods, I can send you a more in-depth report.
The four categories I am keeping an eye on are:
New Listings, Under Contract & Pending, Sold, and Withdrawn.
New Listings has stayed steady the past few weeks with minimal change week to week and an average of about 51 listings per week.
Under Contract/ Pending were at its lowest number three weeks ago with only 5 but in the last two consecutive weeks have averaged 15. The low number of under contract & pending listings the week of 3/16 can be due to cancellations from the initial impact of the virus. Some people lost their jobs, investments, and may just be worried about where the housing market is going, so I will continue to keep an eye on this number.
Sold homes saw an increase the week of 3/23 with a slight dip this past week, but we are still seeing good numbers.
Under Contract and Sold listings can be carry over from February contracts, so it’ll be interesting to see where these numbers are as we continue to look at the coming weeks.
Withdrawn listings this past week is on par with the week of 3/16. This number will be an interesting one to watch. I think we may see sellers pulling their listings because they aren’t comfortable having people tour their house at this time…which is completely understandable.
There is currently activity on both the listing and buying sides, the inventory is low so sellers are facing less competition right now, and I expect there to be a higher concentration of serious buyers currently looking at homes and throughout this Spring.
Comparing this March to last year, we are seeing lower active listings. March 2019 had 448 while March 2020 only had 349. I would expect there to be an influx of listings on the market and a busier than normal summer when this is over.
Interest rates have creeped up a bit closer to 4% and I refer to Allison Barlow of HomeStar Financial on this. If you would like to learn more about mortgages or refinancing send me a message and I’ll get you in touch with her.
If you are interested in learning more about a specific area or neighborhood, shoot me a message at [email protected] .
Will reach out again soon with updated stats so we can see where this market is in the coming weeks.
Until then Stay Well, Stay Safe!