11/21/2022
Let’s talk about what’s going on in the market! Here are the trends I’m seeing:
Homes were on the market for an average of 27 days in October before going under contract. That’s a little faster than the average YTD figure of 32 days on market. In pre-COVID years, it wasn’t uncommon to see homes on the market for two, three, four months or longer on average. It looks like today’s buyers still have the mindset of “buy it before anybody else buys it first”.
There were 27 new listings in October, almost splitting the difference between October of last year and the year before that. The average number of new October listings going back to 2017 is 26, so this year was par for the course in that regard. Fall is typically a slower period for new listings, with most of the listing activity in White Plains happening in the late spring and summer.
We saw 37 listings expire in October, a statistic that’s been trending upwards since June. While that may seem alarming, keep in mind that this follows along with buyer activity which is highest in the summer. More buyers in the market = more homes selling = fewer listings expiring.
And finally, the sale price to list price ratio, or to put it another way, “are homes still selling above asking price?”. In October, White Plains homes sold, on average, for 100% of asking price. That number hasn’t dipped below 100% at all this year despite inflation and mortgage rate influences on the market. It hasn’t dipped below 99% since April 2021. We also saw 100% in March. The high for the year so far was August, when homes sold for 6.5% above asking price on average. Again, pay attention to buyer activity with this one. Most buyers are active in the summer, and home sales in NY take about 2-3 months to close, so those August sales came from June and May contracts. More buyers in the market = more buyers bidding on the same listings = higher odds of a bidding war.