Fair Haven’s real estate has been in a “seller’s market” for more than a year, so you might expect home prices to be higher than they were a year ago. The question is, how much higher are they? According to the most recent (February) S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, nationwide home prices are 12.9% higher than a year ago, so you might expect to see a similar percentage here.
If you’ve been following my posts you know that you need at least 20 home sales in both years in order to have statistically-significant year-to-year comparisons. Fair Haven is a small town, with only about 100 home sales per year, and it usually takes until the end of April to reach the 20 sales mark. This year we’ve had 26 Fair Haven homes sold in the first 4 months of the year, but last year we only had 19, so I’m going to say that my percentage calculations are “unofficial”. That being said, the numbers show an impressive 19% increase in the median sales price in 2014 based on a 37% increase in the number of home sales.
Find out what's happening in Rumson-Fair Havenfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Other good news for Fair Haven home sellers: there are 9% fewer homes listed for sale than there were a year ago (a lower inventory of homes for sale normally translates into higher selling prices). In addition, the all-important real estate absorption rate is 3.0 months now, compared to 4.3 months a year ago. The real estate absorption rate is a calculation of how many months it would take to sell ALL of the homes currently listed for sale, assuming that homes will continue to sell at the same rate that they have in the past 12 months. It takes into account both supply (i.e., inventory) and demand (i.e., sales). An absorption rate of 5 – 7 months is considered a “normal market”, whereas greater than 7 months is considered a “buyer’s market” and less than 5 months is considered a “seller’s market”.
Here are the 4 objective real estate indicators in tabular form:
Find out what's happening in Rumson-Fair Havenfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Fair Haven Home Sales, Jan 1 - Apr 30
2013 2014 Comment
Sales (Demand) 19 26 37% more sales.
Listings* (Supply) 32 29 9% fewer listings.
Months' Supply* 4.3 3.0 Stronger Demand vs Supply.
*based on the past 12 months
Median Sale $620,000 $739,500 19% higher median sales
price.
We just had a borough-wide reassessment of Fair Haven home values, so if you’re a Fair Haven home owner you know what your home is worth for property tax purposes. That number may or may not reflect a home’s current market value; that’s the amount an informed buyer is willing to pay an informed seller. If you’ve been thinking of selling your home, I’d be glad to give you a free comparative market analysis estimating what your home would sell for in the current real estate market. No obligation, of course.
Len
Leonard “Len” Dunikoski, GRI
REALTOR® Associate
Diane Turton Realtors – Rumson Office
8 West River Road
Rumson, NJ 07760
(732) 239-0739 (cell) (732) 530-6686 (office)
