It is officially Spring which means that we are quickly approaching the busy buying and selling season in real estate – though on some days, it feels like we haven’t had a ‘slow’ selling season in quite some time. Last month we looked at stats over a 2 year period for our regular neighborhood updates so this month we are taking a step back and examining trends in MLS Area 390 as a whole – which includes the usual suspects like Capitol Hill, Madison Park, Arboretum and Montlake – but it also includes neighborhoods we don’t typically single out like the Central Area, Judkins, Beacon Hill and South Lake Union.
Let’s start with For Sale vs. Sold. There was a 12.5% decrease in the number of homes available for sale in February compared to the previous month, which is a 23.9% decrease from February just one year ago. 59 sales closed in February compared to just 42 in January, proving that buyers are hungry for more inventory.
The average price per square foot of homes that have sold in the area is climbing, ending with an average of $379 per square foot in February – a 21.2% increase over February 2014.
The days on market is tightening up, ending with an average of just 28 days in February, one of the shorter CDOM we’ve seen in the past 14 months. Sellers are also selling at prices that are extremely close to, if not above, asking price.
If you recall, history suggests that neighborhoods typically see a slight spike in inventory levels in January and February and then starts to decrease throughout the rest of the year. We saw a slight spike in January with 1.9 months of inventory but sales activity dropped that number to just 1.2 months by the end of February. Anything under 3 months of available inventory is considered a seller’s market while anything over 6 months is a buyer’s market – once again showing that this limited inventory count is helping to drive up prices and shorten the amount of time a home sits on the market.
What does this all mean? It means that if you’re a seller in one of the 390 neighborhoods and your pricing strategy in on point, you can anticipate your home selling for top dollar in a matter of weeks. If you would like us to help you identify your home’s current value and prepare your home for the market, please let us know. You can also check your home’s value using the widget at the top of this page.
We also invite you to take a look at current homes for sale in Capitol Hill. If you have any interest in touring any of these properties, please don’t hesitate to contact us to arrange a showing.
[custom_search id=”22″ title=”Capitol-Hill-Homes-for-sale”]