Ryan Haley presents the real estate market report for Delmarva for May 24th, 2023.
So, what are we seeing here? Well, we just got through Cruisers Week, and we are now on the cusp of Memorial Day Weekend, the kickoff to summer here at the beach. Exciting times! It is quiet right now, but that is going to change here in the next two days. So, we are looking forward to that.
As somebody who lives here year-round, we’d certainly like the quiet times in the off-season, but we do look forward to everybody coming back and enjoying the beach for the summertime. So, that’s what we’ve got going.
Going locally here, what’s going on with the markets? We are adding inventory. That’s a little bit of the theme that we are seeing here in two of the three markets that we are going to be discussing here.
Worcester County, Maryland.
So, in Worcester County, we had 59 new listings in the last seven days, while we had 49 go under contract. We added 10 pieces of inventory here. We’ve gone over 300 active listings. We are 305 active listings county-wide here in Worcester County, and we had 179 go under contract in the last 30 days. So, that is giving us 1.7 months’ supply, up from 1.6 last week.
Sussex County, Delaware
When we look at Sussex County, Delaware, we had 145 new properties come on the market in the last seven days, while we had 134 go under contract. County-wide, we had 1,297 properties available in Sussex County, Delaware. Well, we had 485 go under contract in the last 30 days, which gives us 2.7 months’ supply in Sussex County, Delaware.
Wicomico County, Maryland
Rounding out Delmarva is Wicomico County. We had 30 new listings, but we had 33 go under contract, and 127 active listings in the county, with 109 going under contract in the last 30 days, giving us 1.2 months’ supply in Wicomico County. So, we’re seeing a little bit more inventory, which gives you a few more options.
Interest Rates
And what are interest rates doing? Well, the trend that I have seen pretty much this entire spring, and partially why the market has been very competitive, is roughly 50 percent in certain pockets and as much as a third in other pockets are cash buyers. So, we still see a lot of cash. Now, that cash could be coming from other areas, whether they sold a property and they’re doing a 1031 and paying cash here, or they’re diversifying with some volatility in the stock market. We’ve seen this trend of people pulling money out of investments and putting it into real property, hard property, something that’s tangible. So, we’ve seen a lot of cash.
But interest rates, in general, for your average 30-year fixed over the last few weeks here, we’ve continued to see it tick up. We’re right at 7%. So, some of this debt ceiling talk has kind of pushed up the rates. But keep in mind, there are options, and the adjustable-rate mortgages have been more prominent here over the last couple of weeks, and those rates are down in the low sixes or high fives.
So, lots of opportunities here, lots of things that we could talk about, lots of different strategies, whether it’s buying or selling. We would love to assist you in any way that we can. That is the market report for this week. We look forward to seeing you next week