Ryan Haley with Atlantic Shores Sotheby’s International Realty. presents the real estate market report for Delmarva for the week of August 22nd, 2023. It’s flying by here, but what have we seen with the real estate market here at the beach?
Worcester County Real Estate Market Report
Well, if we focus on Worcester County in the last seven days, we had 58 new opportunities come on the market. Meanwhile, we had 61 go under contract. So, we’ve outsold the new inventory by just a little bit here.
When we look county-wide and we look at our total month supply, we are at 1.84 months’ supply in Worcester County currently. That means if no new listings came on the market, we would sell at this pace in 1.84 months, all the inventory that’s out there. So, that’s Worcester County.
Wicomico County Real Estate Market Report
If we move over to Wicomico County, in the last seven days, we had 19 new listings come on the market. Well, we had 33 go under contract. Not quite two to one, but we are certainly seeing strong activity in Wicomico County.
County-wide, there are 125 total actives for sale, and in the last 30 days, we had 96 go under contract. That gives us just over a month’s supply, 1.3 months supply in Wicomico County.
Sussex County Real Estate Market Report
Moving over to Sussex County, Delaware, there were 151 new listings in the last seven days, and 151 went under contract. Very balanced there. For everyone that’s coming on, we got one going under contract. There are 1,328 total actives in the county, with 469 under contract in the last 30 days. This gives us 2.8 months’ supply in Sussex County.
July 2023 Statistics
Now, the stats. The stats in total have come out from the Maryland Association of Realtors for July. Let’s touch on a couple of numbers here to give you a little bit bigger picture as to what is truly going on for Worcester County, specifically. In July of this year, 2023, we had 155 properties that sold.
Last year, we had 192. So, the total number of sales is down 19.3 percent year over year. But what has happened with inventory this year? There are 327 properties for sale, while last year we had 342 properties for sale. So, it’s pretty balanced there.
At the same time, what’s going on with sales prices? This is a big one. If we look at median sales prices year over year, they’re still up 7.6 percent. So, not the pace that we saw in 2022 or 2021, where we were in the 15 to 20 percent appreciation annually. But this year, it’s still very strong, coming in at 7.6 percent. And that’s even with the interest rates that we’ve seen continuously rise.
So, where are interest rates currently?
As of today, 7.49% on a 30-year fixed is our national average. We are starting to see some talk of the 2-1 buy down coming back into play, and the possibility of trying to negotiate and pay some points to get that rate down to a level that is acceptable to some buyers.
A 2-1 buy down, real quick, how does that work? Well, you could get a seller to help contribute towards your closing costs and buy down the interest rate. So, it’s roughly two percent of the loan amount to be able to buy down the interest rate. If you had an interest rate of 7.5% today, you did a 2-1 buy down, that would take your interest rate down to 5.5% for the first year. Then the next year, it would go to 6.5%. And then in the third year, it would go to the top level of 7.5%.
Now, why is this useful? Well, right out of the gates, it would allow you to secure the property that works best for you today and enjoy the benefits of a lower rate for the next year and the following year. While at the same time, the major reporting agencies are all predicting that we are going to see mortgage interest rates decline as we move into 2024 and into 2025.
So, when those rates do come down, we are going to see the market speed up. There’s no doubt about it. There have been a lot of people who’ve been sitting on the fence and have not necessarily made moves. So, when that happens, the market’s going to be extremely competitive.
Right now, in the current environment, if you did move forward and purchase with that 2-1 buy down, you might have the ability to do a little bit of negotiation and take advantage of a little bit less competition and secure the property that works for you. That’s kind of the full version of what a 2-1 buy down is. If you have any questions on that, I would love to help explain that to you and point you in the right direction of a lender that can help you with that process.
So, there you have it. That is the real estate market report here for Delmarva, August 22nd, 2023. If you like this information, please share it with your friends. If you have any questions, reach out to me or anybody on our team. Look forward to seeing you here again next week with another market report.