Happy New Year!

Let’s kick off 2019 by looking back at what happened in 2018

According to the NJMLS monthly market report, Essex County homeowners had some good news: median sale prices here were about 4% higher than they were in 2017. And home sales also rose by about 5%.

The latest figures from the New Jersey Association of Realtors, point to some other good stats if you are thinking of selling soon. Houses are sitting on the market for less time than they were a year ago, an average of about 52 days, and the sales prices as a percentage of their asking price, are a little bit higher than they were last year.

Now, we’re here in the dead of winter, traditionally one of the slower periods of the year, and yet the market is still busy. For December, NJMLS data shows there were more new listings and 40% more open houses scheduled than there were the same month in 2017.

And I can tell you, I saw more open houses during the holiday season than I have ever seen before.

The past few weekends of crazy crowds at area open houses, and the fact that several of our clients have been involved in bidding wars, suggest that maybe January won’t slow down either.

What’s driving the activity? It could be the relatively mild weather – no big snowstorms, and also buyers jumping in now to skip the even crazier spring market or who are worried that mortgage rates will soon rise.