The greater Greenville area housing market has seen a slowing in its housing market due to COVID-19 especially during the month of April. Given the peak of the crisis has now come and gone, it’s expected that things should pick up quite nicely during the month of May.
Some key data points for the month of April 2020 according to the report released from the Greater Greenville Association of Realtors:
- New listings were down 17.6% compared to a year ago
- Pending sales were down 59.8% compared to a year ago
- Closed sales were down 12.6% compared to a year ago
- Inventory of homes for sale increased by 22.2%
- Months supply of homes for sale increased by 20.6% to 4.1 months
- Median Home prices increased by 3.8% to $225,000
- Days on Market until Sale 54 days
The Greenville area continues to see healthy increases in home values and the area continues to see growth in population and jobs. 2019 ended the year with the median home price up 5.7% to $216,745. The average home price is up 5.1% to $251,673 according to the latest home sales statistics published by the Greater Greenville Association of REALTORS®.
Closed sales we believe is a better measure of the overall housing market than is home price appreciation. Price is a lagging indicator. So if sales fall, normally we would expect to see a softening in home prices. However, we are in a somewhat unique market, especially in certain areas of the Greenville area, where we have a real shortage of property. Anyway, 2019 was yet another strong year for the Greenville Area as 14,574 units sold up 6.5% from the previous year.
Some other key data points to consider:
- Days on Market until Sale saw a slight uptick to 53 days up from 51
- Inventory of homes for sale was up 14.2% overall
- Months supply of inventory also moved up from 3.3 to 3.6 months. This is still a sellers market but it it moving toward a more neutral market. Neutral is typically between 4-6 months of inventory. That said, the Greenville area has many micro markets so be sure to check with your professional REALTOR® when trying to understand a particular property in a specific part of town.
The Greenville Journal also published some great information recently that gives a lot of perspective on the Greenville County real estate market.