Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
First quarter residential real estate data for Memphis, Shelby County, Fayette County, and Tipton County has been released by the Memphis Area Association of Realtors, and the results are a little mixed.
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Sales are down slightly from a year ago. However, average sales prices are up significantly. This is due to lower inventory while demand continues going up. For the buying public, this isn't good news. For sellers and Realtors, it is good news because they know more houses are going to sell quickly.
However, the popular sections of Midtown, Downtown, and East Memphis showed positive growth across the board for both the numbers of properties sold and increases in average prices.
The second quarter of this year looks to be very interesting. With low inventory and increasing demand, this is clearly a seller's market and we are well into the peak of the annual market. With it being a clear seller's market, what's not clear is why and if more sellers will enter the market later this spring and summer. If they don't, prices are likely to continue rising significantly. A moderate number of new sellers would likely stabilize prices at the already higher levels. Still, even a significant number of new sellers aren't likely to cause prices to decline based on the number of buyers already in the market.
For the overall Memphis Metro area, total inventory stood at 5,847 for the first quarter compared to 5,925 a year ago. That shows the inventory level has decreased slightly and the price increases are being driven by higher demand. Here's how inventory stood at the end of the quarter:
Pending sales aren't included in active listings but ownership has not yet changed hands:
Keeping in mind that most pending sales have been on the market longer than active listings, it's clear that prices have increased significantly entering the spring selling season.
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About the author: Brian Kline has been investing in real estate for more than 30 years and writing about real estate investing for seven years. He also draws upon 25 plus years of business experience including 12 years as a manager at Boeing Aircraft Company. Brian currently lives at Lake Cushman, Washington. A vacation destination, a few short miles from a national forest in the Olympic Mountains with the Pacific Ocean a couple of miles in the opposite direction.
