Ryan Haley brings you the real estate market report for Delmarva for the week of January 25th, 2023.
There is a new trend this week where we have actually widened the gap between new inventory coming on the market and what’s going pending right out of the gates here in 2023. We have seen a spurt of activity which is encouraging and could be pointing to signs that we may see a little bit of an earlier push to our spring real estate market.
Worcester County, Maryland Update
In the last seven days, we had 26 properties come on the market, while at the same time, we sold 45. Forty-five properties have gone pending and/or active under contract, so we are definitely exceeding the new inventory that’s coming on.
Sussex County, Delaware Update
When we fast forward and move over here to Sussex County, Delaware, we had 128 properties come on the market, which is a good addition to our inventory.
It’s good to have some more properties to choose from for our buyers, but at the same time, there was lots of competition for these 128 homes as we had 141 that went pending here in the last seven days.
If we look at the whole county, our number of days on market in our month’s inventories is actually decreasing.
So, in the entire County in Sussex, we have 1,195 properties for sale., while 359 have gone under contract here in the last 30 days. That gives us 3.33 months’ supply, down from being over four months which we have seen for a period of time.
If we look at Worcester County, we have 279 actives, while 133 went under contract in the last 30 days, giving us just over that two-month supply window once again. That is a decrease in the supply.
Wicomico County, Maryland Update
In Wicomico County, where we’ll find Salisbury, we had 18 properties come on the market here in the last seven days and 23 have gone under contract. County-wide, 152 active listings and 62 under contract in the last 30 days, giving us 2.6 months’ supply in Wicomico.
National Market
Nationally, the news and part of the reason we’re seeing this activity is the fact that last week we actually hit the four-month low in mortgage interest rates. It’s the lowest it’s been in the last four months.
Mortgage applications have continued to increase as we’ve seen those rates have drifted down into the low 6’s for a 30-year fixed rate. A lot of our government products, whether it be FHA, USDA, VA, are under 6% mortgage interest rates right now. It’s the same with your jumbo products.
So, the larger loans are also under 6%, and if you wanted to do a 15-year mortgage right now, you’d be looking at five and a quarter. Those lower interest rates have definitely brought people back to the table as affordability has increased.
We’ve seen that continuous trend with rates trending down, but it is unlikely that we’re going to be see 2%, 3%, or even 4% anytime soon. This is probably going to be the new norm. Hopefully, we’ll get into the 5’s, and that’s what a lot of consumers can expect as we move forward, which historically is still very low.
In Closing
That is the encouraging real estate market report here for the week of the 25th in January. If there’s anything we can do as a company to assist you, it would be our pleasure to assist you.