A low inventory of homes and high demand of buyers is causing a major supply and demand issue. ABQ Expert is here to break down the real estate market statistics for June 2020, including housing inventory, median and average sales prices, and number of pending and closed transactions.
As a buyer or seller of a home, it is important that you keep up with local real estate market numbers. In Albuquerque, the Greater Albuquerque Association of REALTORS (GAAR) releases local housing market numbers on a monthly basis. Numbers can be dense and overwhelming at times, so that is why I am here every month to help you understand them.
June 2020 Overview
Where are all the houses? That’s what many buyers are wondering. With a market that shows strong signs of recovery from COVID-19 quarantine months, there is a strong demand from prospective buyers but little movement from sellers with even lower inventory than months before (which also saw record low inventory). These low numbers could be attributed to seller hesitation due to the pandemic and rising case numbers in our state. GAAR and many other REALTORs, including myself, agree that until inventory rises in Albuquerque and surrounding areas the market will remain hot and competitive. What does competition mean in a low inventory real estate market? It means multiple offer situations, quick sales, and higher sale prices.
In a low inventory market with steep competition among other buyers, it is vital you have a real estate agent on your side who can navigate the competition, find you the right home, and write a competitive offer. As a seller, it’s important to find a real estate agent who knows how to price your home right, get your home marketed, and help you understand all potential offers and what they mean for your final net out.
So, let’s take a look at these numbers and see what they mean for both buyers and sellers in the greater Albuquerque area.
Single-Family Detached Homes
New Listings, Pending and Closed Sales, and Days on Market
The first set of numbers we will look at are for single-family detached homes. Detached means homes that are not attached or affixed to anything. In terms of new listings, there were only 1,433 new detached homes for the entire month of June 2020. That is a 15% decrease from June 2019. This lack of new listings demonstrates some of that seller hesitation I mentioned earlier.
Although we saw a decrease in new listings, we saw an increase in both pending and closed sales. For pending sales, homes that went under contract with a buyer, we saw a total of 1,590 for June 2020. This is a 34.3% increase from last year. What does this mean for buyers and sellers? Well, for every new listing we saw another home leave the market (and then some). This creates a bit of velocity in terms of how quickly a home sells. For buyers and sellers alike, this creates the potential for multiple offer situations. In terms of closed sales, we saw an increase of 1.2% from this time last year with a total of 1,138 closings in June 2020.
Now, I mentioned a velocity earlier in terms of pending sales or homes going under contract, the total days on market can help illustrate this. Days on the market is the average amount of time a home will spend for sale (from that sign going up in the front lawn to when it goes under contract with a buyer). Some homes may see a longer time (say months) and some may see an extremely short amount of time (say less than a day). For June 2020 we saw a decrease from last year of 11.8% to a total of 30 days average.
Median and Average Sales Price and Inventory
So, we have a crazy hot market with a high demand of buyers and low inventory of homes, what is this doing to the sales price? The month of June showed that this is increasing both median and average sales prices for detached homes. How much of an increase? For June 2020 we saw an increase of 3.4% for median sales price from $235,000 last year to $243,000 this year. In terms of average sales price we saw an increase of 3.3% from $271,294 to $280,158. For both median and average that is just under a $10,000 increase in price. This could be indicative of competitive and/or multiple offer situations that drive up the sales price or simply sellers listing at a slightly higher than average price because there is no competition.
Now, I keep talking about low inventory of homes in the Albuquerque area, but how low is it really? For detached homes we saw slashed by 55.2%. That is over half of the amount of homes we saw this time last year. June 2019 saw 2,775 detached homes total on the market and June 2020 saw only 1,242. That’s roughly 1 home for sale for every 200 households.
Single-Family Attached Homes
New Listings, Pending and Closed Sales, and Days on Market
Alright, let’s take a look at the numbers for attached homes. Attached homes are affixed to something else like condos or town-homes. Similar to detached homes we are seeing lower inventory, days on market, and higher median and average sale prices. In terms of new listings we saw a decrease of 11.2% from 161 listings in 2019 to 143 in 2020.
For pending transactions, we saw an increase of 30.6% from 124 pending sales last year to 162 this year. Closed transactions also saw an increase from 109 to 130 sales. Much like detached homes there was also a decrease of days on market. In June 2019 the average was 38 days and June of this year was 31 days so an 18.4% decrease.
Median and Average Sales Price and Inventory
Now for median and average sale prices we saw increases. The biggest increase came with median sales price with an increase of 10.2%. In June 2019 the median sales price was $152,000 and June 2020 was $167,450. That’s an increase of about $15,000 which is fairly significant. The average sales price also saw an increase albeit slightly smaller. In June 2019 the average sales price of an attached home was $174,177 and this year it was $175,556 so an increase of 0.8%.
Just like detached homes we witnessed a dramatic slash in inventory for attached homes. How dramatic? Well a decrease of 57.9%. In June 2019 we had 266 attached homes on the market and June 2020 we had only 112.
That does it for a look at Albuquerque’s real estate market for June 2020. Whether you are selling or buying it is important to find the right real estate agent who knows the market in your local area. Are you in the market to buy or sell today? Contact me now and let’s get started on writing the next chapter of your homeownership journey.
Elizabeth Benedict is an Associate Broker and REALTOR® at ERA Sellers and Buyers Real Estate in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She holds a Masters in Literature from the University of New Mexico. When she is not helping her community buy and sell houses she is usually writing.
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