Sometimes the best answers aren’t right under your nose. For example, the most
popular market indicator is home prices. But prices are what we call a lagging
indicator, because they reflect closed sales. Leading indicators are forward-looking.
Watch activity related to list price received at sale, days on market and months
supply of inventory to see how sellers might be regaining their pricing power.
We’re halfway through 2012, and what a year it’s been. Residential real estate has finally taken some meaningful strides toward recovery, and they’ve all been self-powered without divine (or governmental) intervention. Yes, there have been some head fakes in the past, but there’s real reason to believe that market turnaround awaits us. Beyond home prices, key metrics to watch include Days on Market, Percent of List Price Received and Months Supply of Inventory. Locally, several indicators showed improvement. Let’s see what the rest of our local data has to say.New Listings in the Charleston region decreased 3.2 percent to 1,475. Pending Sales were up 31.3 percent to 1,166. Inventory levels shrank 26.5 percent to 6,531 units.
Prices moved higher. The Median Sales Price increased 1.9 percent to $200,000. Days on Market was down 8.4 percent to 97 days. The supply-demand balance stabilized as Months Supply of Inventory was down 38.8 percent to 7.4 months.
Read more: Download the June 2012 Indicators (PDF)
