Doing research on this sales report for Tenafly homes confirmed what I’d observed. New construction has been big and the number of sales is up. Let’s take a look at how 2017 compares to 2016 town wide through August:
- 27 more sales for a 22% increase (124 to 151)
- 24% less time on the market (95.2 to 72.1 days)
- 18% higher dollar volume ($133,140,350 to $157,121,988)
- 3% lower average price ($1,073,713 to $1,040,543)
- 2% lower median price ($895,000 to $877,500)
- 29% more Under Contract homes (130 to 168)
- 2% lower Under Contract listing price ($1,130,466 to $1,107,188)
- New construction remained at 16% or every 6.25 sales.
What’s striking about this data is the huge increase in the number of sold homes. We have been crying about the lack of inventory and it has seemed extremely low this year at times. However, look at the increase in sales. We also have lower prices for both average and median figures.
So I went back into the New Jersey MLS to compare the number of active listings for 2016 and 2017. We had 254 in 2016 and 272 this year for a 7% increase. How do we get 22% more sales with only 7% more houses to sell? Because a greater number of homes coming on the market sold. The pace of sales tells you this.
24% less time on the market equals torrid consumer demand. No matter how you figure it, this is a tremendous increase in the demand for Tenafly homes.
Let’s look at how the market breaks down in 2017:
- 10 under $500,000 (6.6%)
- 114 are $500-1.5 million (75%)
- 27 $1.5 million+ (18%)
Now let’s look at 2016:
- 9 under $500,000 (7%)
- 95 $500-1.5 million (75%)
- 22 $1.5 million+ (17%)
As you can see, both years are very similar which shows stability and ongoing strength. I ran a NJMLS comparative report for $500-1.5 million sales because that’s the bulk of the market. This showed a 5% drop in average sales prices and a 4% drop for median prices. There isn’t much of a difference between them. As a result, we know price numbers did come down slightly.
The question is Why?
Data is great but you can’t always figure things out this way. It’s not a mathematical problem because residential real estate is not just numbers. People act emotionally. It’s their home. Consequently it’s a matter of knowledge, of interpretation.
While more sellers are selling their homes many of those homes are not updated. Homes needing updating sell for less. As a result, pricing figures came in lower. Therefore this does not prove that values are coming down.
Why more homes on the market? Because of Baby Boomers. Although we have an inventory shortage because Boomers are staying put longer, this is a huge population. As a result even a modest increase in Boomer homes for sale has a big effect.
Tenafly is and always will be one of the most coveted addresses in the New York metropolitan market. What really happened is that the product mix changed. More of the market is made up of homes that need updating.
In conclusion, here’s the key to it all: More sales happening quicker. If values were really dropping, you’d have fewer sales taking longer.
You can’t do this on a computer because nothing beats experience and the personal knowledge you gain by being in the market every day.
I hope you found this sales report for Tenafly homes valuable. Contact me when you want to get into the market yourself or to just discuss your options.
