📊 MARCH 2024 - Real Estate Market Update
It’s been an interesting start to the year with a subtle increase in the number of homes coming onto the market for sale, but with a stable number of buyers entering the market, this balance is seeing house prices on the whole holding their ground.
Granted, we are not setting records with the majority of sales price wise, and it is certainly taking longer for houses to be taken off the market in the majority… I mean, there are some exceptions to this, but at a big picture level we are in a pretty balanced market, with supply still controlling outcomes.
Over the Easter long weekend it was interesting feedback from the buyers who were shopping, saying that they saw the long weekend as an opportunity to potentially get ahead of their competing buyers and numbers overall were better than anticipated.
To say things are unpredictable and somewhat random would be an understatement, and there realistically is no sure fire way to predict how the buyers will respond to individual properties. It is becoming clearer that presentation, floor plan and upgrades are becoming more pivotal in determining just how “in demand” each property will be.
So… what did we see in the Month of March?
I’ll be going into detail in the upcoming suburb snapshots, but the 3977 overview?
121 houses were sold in March which is down 15% compared to March 2023, with the median house price up by 3.2% sitting at $744,000.
Year to date?
369 houses have sold which is down 2.6% on this time last year - so it seems things are balancing out a little on the number of transactions and overall the median house price (compared to this time last year) is up 4%. So all heading in the right direction!
Moving forward the Reserve Bank are now meeting at 6 week intervals, which is seeming to change the psychology of buyers as their pre-approvals are valid for 3 months, and it appears to be having a calming effect on buyer sentiment. The majority of buyers are realising that buying now before the highly anticipated rate drops that are coming later this year will see them financially better off, rather than waiting for the drop when competition for homes will fire up once again - that being said - buyers are currently pretty easily distracted when a new property listing alert hits their phone, which can also be a reason for longer days on market.
Long story short
If you’re thinking of buying, do it now!
If you need to sell to buy… seriously consider doing this sooner rather than later - depending on where and what you want to buy - you could end up with a far better changeover cost than you will, when the market takes it’s next run… which is expected now in September - just in time for the usual Spring market rev up.
If you’re selling and now buying again… Perhaps later this year is the best move?
If you want to go into detail about your specific plan, get in touch HERE