The second quarter of the year has a story to tell. Pending units are up over a year ago with much more inventory as well and that is keeping prices up. However, at the moment the amount of new inventory entering our market is out pacing the amount going under contract which gives those of us looking at week to week and month to month pause to look harder. June had an enormous number of new listings come on and is still continuing however during that same month the number of pended listings went down. It reminds me of the philosopher Thomas Hobbes who said something to the effect, if you give folks too many options, they’ll become overwhelmed. On the other hand, the activity in the second quarter is encouraging and shaping us to have yet another common cyclical year which is to say all of the hay will be made in the third quarter. So, buckle up.
In condos, Ketchum and Elkhorn have pulled the weight this past quarter. A higher average price has also helped pick up the total volume sold in addition to a few more selling. Note that the percentage of list price they are selling at though is at 96% and three below a year ago. This is a pretty obvious indicator that condos are being priced above the actual market value and ’23’s list prices were more in line with what the market was willing to pay.
In single family homes, we had a pretty fat
quarter. Big part of this was due to May alone when the average sales price was
27% above the average for the quarter and accounted for 43% of the quarter’s total
volume. The quarter itself sparked quite a bit of inventory to come onto the
market as there were 55 more units active and does appear to be a continuing
trend. There doesn’t seem to be any signs that the market will slow down other
than the fact that days on market and absorption have gone up compared to year
over and that data can be found in the monthly and weekly updates.
Residential Land is boosting as well. The bulk of this inventory is coming from Hailey, Mid-Valley, and outside of the valley. Granted this is a much slower part of the market as it’s basically green bananas versus ripe and ready to move in, however, even with general contractors still being two years out folks seem to be comfortable with their timelines. Lots can change during the wait so a lot of parcels will turn over multiple times before they come to fruition and in the meant time keeping buyers’ residential dreams alive. At the end of the day the quarter was notably up 304% in total sales volume.
Two farms and two ranches sold in the second quarter and there were seven more ranch listings over a year ago bringing their total inventory up to 35. Farming’s inventory was down four units yet of the two sales that did occur, their average closing price was 102% of asking. Cleary well priced whereas ranches are selling at 91% of ask which tells us there’s room in their prices.