Homeowners and home buyers in Scotch Plains  are smart to learn about the real estate market to help make an informed decision about when to buy and sell a home in Scotch Plains .

Here’s what’s been happening lately.

Inventory:

• 21 homes were sold in Scotch Plains in February – compared to the 12 month average of 26 homes per month. December was busy – 31 homes sold – and winter is typically slower than the rest of th eyear, so a slow down in February is not alarming. When the weather improves, the market likely will also.
• Inventory is 123 currently listed homes compared to a 12 month average of 136 homes and to the 124 homes that were offered for sale at this time last year.

Click here to view currently listed homes in Scotch Plains.

• As inventory decreases, demand for homes usually increases. This can help to raise prices and/or decrease how long it takes to sell a home.

Realtors use an analysis called Months of Inventory to evaluate the real estate market. The Months of Inventory is equal to how long it would take to sell the existing inventory if no new houses were put on the market.  When the Months of Inventory is below four months, realtors call it a seller’s market because the supply is relatively low so sellers have a stronger position in negotiations between a buyer and a seller. When the Months of Inventory is above seven months, realtors call it a buyer’s market because the supply is relatively high and buyers have a stronger position in negotiations. Months of Inventory between four and seven is considered a normal market with a good balance of buyers and sellers.

In Scotch Plains, there are currently 5.86 months of inventory in a normal market. There are enough homes listed for sale to satisfy the current buyers in Scotch Plains.

 

Prices:

• The average sale price in Scotch Plains in February was $523,761 – almost 5% lower than the 12 month average sale price of $555,634 .
• The average list price in Scotch Plains in February was $649,150. Home sellers who want to sell their Scotch Plains homes this winter are going to have to price competitively.

• Scotch Plains home prices vary seasonally and the trend line indicates steady growth over the past 7 years with every indication that prices will continue to rise.

 

Days on Market:

• In February , the average sold home in Scotch Plains was on the market for 69 days – compared to 37 days in February of last year and to the 12 month average of 49 days. Sales are slowing down – not unusual in the winter.

• The speed of a home sale is dependent on home condition, pricing, and marketing. Homes typically sell slower in the winter than the rest of the year as is evident in this six year graph below. The trend line, however, shows that the time it takes to sell a home continues to get shorter overall.

 

Please see Team Zuhl’s Scotch Plains Real Estate Info page for info on what this means for buyers and sellers.

 

To read more about the real estate market in Scotch Plains, please read our earlier market reports here.  For more information on how Team Zuhl can help you, please call us at 908-917-4189.