Ryan Haley with Atlantic Shores Sotheby’s International Realty is coming to you today on August 8th, 2023, here at the beach. We are into White Marlin Week, so this is one of our busiest weeks in Ocean City, and one of the more exciting weeks in Ocean City. There’s upwards of 400 boats that are fishing this week, and 10 million dollars in prize money, which is another record. So, it’s a great week here in Ocean City.
Let’s touch on not just what we’ve seen in the last seven days here, but also what we’ve seen in the first half of 2023. We’ve crossed over August, and we’re in the second half, getting and approaching the fall market.
So, what does it look like today?
Worcester County, Maryland
Well, we’ll start with the last seven days here in Worcester County. We’ve had 67 new properties come on the market, while at the same time, we had 56 go under contract. So, that’s actually kind of encouraging for a lot of buyers, as we’ve seen a little bit more inventory added to the market this past week.
If we look county-wide, we have 343 properties for sale, while we are selling 189 in the last 30 days. That gives us 1.81 months’ supply here in Worcester County.
Wicomico County, Maryland
Going over to Wicomico County, we’ve had 33 new properties come on the market here in the last seven days, and we are completely even. We’ve had 33 go under contract in that same period of time. County-wide, we’re looking at 1.4 months’ supply, which gives us 137 total actives in Wicomico County.
Sussex County, Delaware
In Sussex County, we had 136 new listings here in the last seven days, while we had 157 go under contract. So, the sales are exceeding the new inventory there in Sussex County.
County-wide, there’s a 2.7 months’ supply and roughly 1,301 properties for sale. Keep in mind a lot of that is new construction. I know we’ve talked about this, but Sussex County, Delaware, is really the hotbed where we’re seeing new construction being added to the marketplace.
Q2 Market Update
So, what does it look like for the entire first half of the year and Q2 of 2023?
Well, I wanted to give you some stats just to provide you with some context as to where our values are, what our median sales price is, days on the market, and things of that nature.
In Worcester County right now, our median sales price is $410,000, with the average sales price being $459,000. Total months’ supply, as mentioned before, we’re just under two months. That is actually up a little bit. We’re up about 25 percent over where we were a year ago. And if we look at the total number of homes for sale being 324, we’re actually down 11%, so our inventory is down.
When we look at Wicomico County, in Q2, our median sales price is $265,000, while our average sales price is $279,000. When we look at our total number of homes, being 131 currently, that is down 42.5% year over year. So, that definitely shows us in Wicomico County that the number of homes coming on the market is definitely down.
When we look at Sussex County, the average sales price is $554,000, while our median is $448,000. And our homes for sale currently, this report is showing us 1,403. That’s only down 5.8% over what we saw a year ago at this time.
Number of Home Sales Per County
Here are some total sold numbers county by county as this would be interesting to take a quick peek at. In Worcester County, the total number of solds is 756 year-to-date. So, 756 properties have sold year-to-date in Worcester County, and as mentioned before, our median sales price being $425,000.
In Wicomico County year-to-date, there have been 624 transactions taking place. Looking at Sussex County, Sussex County obviously is the largest here. 3,045 properties have sold year-to-date in Sussex County.
Q2 National Market Update
The last piece I wanted to touch on kind of hits us on the national level, but I wanted to talk about one of the main reasons that we are seeing fewer homes on the market, our inventory being down, and that is the impact of mortgage rates on total listing inventory.
One stat that I find extremely fascinating is that right now across the entire United States, the average home that has a mortgage on it, 70.7% of those homes have mortgage interest rates that are less than 4%.
So, what that has caused some people to do, whether it’s the move-up buyer, the move-down buyer, or somebody who’s just looking to go get a different home, it’s caused some hesitation because they realize that today, if they were to sell their current home that has an interest rate below 4% and buy another home, the interest rate on the purchase could be as high as 7% to 7.5%, where we’re currently sitting today.
As the interest rates have risen, we’ve seen more home sellers or homeowners staying in their homes and thinking twice about actually selling. So, what that has done, last year as we were heading into the fall market, all of the major reporting agencies and economists were predicting that we were going to see this huge spike in new listings. Well, it actually went completely the opposite way. We have had fewer listings come on than we’ve had in the last five years because people are locked into those lower rates.
And what does it mean moving forward?
Well, interest rates are still predicted to stay in the 6% to 7% range for the next year. So, that could continue to cause fewer homes to come on the market, which, when there’s less inventory and demand is high, it keeps those prices increasing. And as mentioned, year-to-date, we’re right around 6% appreciation for home values here on the shore.
So, that’s just one interesting tidbit. When people ask, “Are we going to see more inventory hit the market?” Well, if rates remain high, there’s a good chance that we will not see as much inventory hit the market as some were expecting.
WeI anticipate that we will continue to have a very competitive market. The best homes and the best locations are going to get a lot of activity and will continue to sell.
We hope this information is helpful. If you have any specific questions about any specific areas, I’d love to answer those for you and maybe break down a market report for those areas as well. Thanks again for tuning in. We’ll see you next week with another market report.