Thanks to another strong month, our Lake Norman real estate market ended 2016 with a healthy 6.8% increase in single family home sales versus 2015 and the highest number of annual home sales since 2005!  While our December sales only beat out last December’s by single digits, we still ended with 6 of the 7 final months of 2016 beating 2015 numbers handily. The cherry on top again this month is that the number of new contracts once again are higher than the past two years indicating that we should begin 2017 in the black. Let’s take a closer look:

* All data is from the Carolina Multiple Listing Service.

Some significant additional statistics for you:

• “Waterfront homes continue to under perform despite Lake Norman’s overall high sales numbers. Waterfront properties represented only 26.6% of our December closed sales,. At the same time they currently comprise 40.7% of our active listings. The average sales price of a waterfront home in December was $886,643 which is slightly higher than the past 2 months but well below August’s $1,040,070, July’s $912,446.  Our overall luxury housing market remains soft as well which is linked closely to our waterfront market. The average price per square foot of our waterfront homes came in at $226.00 down from last month’s impressive $252.94 and October’s $237.98. This number is best averaged over a longer period of months because it only takes one or two really expensive sales ($2- 3 million+) to skew any given month. It took on average whopping 162 days for a waterfront home to sell (verses 108 last month)and they sold for only 93% of the listing price compared to 96% last month. We currently have only 49 waterfront homes under contract comprising 26.7% of our total homes under contract.  Our waterfront homes’ months of inventory actually dropped down to 8.8 compared to 11 last month. Waterfront home sales are still in a buyer’s market.  These numbers certainly indicate that now would be a good time to by a waterfront home.  That said, this varies quite a bit by price range, location and quality of water.  Don’t be complacent because when really nice waterfront properties hit the MLS as they are actually selling quickly.

• 29 new construction homes closed in December through our MLS but this does not reflect an accurate picture of new home sales since so many are custom or are purchased directly from the builders and therefore never enter the MLS. (In fact, this segment of the market may be skewing our Lake Norman home sales numbers quite a bit.) The average listing price vs sales price of new construction single family homes was 99%. There is still very little if any wiggle room in new home prices. (But ask for all those great upgrades!) We currently have 75 new construction homes under contract in the MLS. The average sales price in December logged in at $391,829.  The months of supply of active listings based on December sales stands at 7.1 so overall new construction homes are technically in a buyer’s market but again this varies greatly by location and price range.

• Distressed sales” (Foreclosures (REO’S), defaults, Short Sales) represented 1.5% of Lake Norman’s total  home sales. With just 2 distressed closed sale for the entire month it is clear they didn’t play a role in December at all.  Distressed active listings currently comprise 2.1% of Lake Norman’s current total inventory of single family homes for sales. Distressed sales continue to play an insignificant role in our Lake Norman real estate market. 

• 50.0% of Lake Norman’s December single family home sales were under $400,000 which is about equal to last month’s.

•  68.8% of Lake Norman home sales in December were under $500,000, which is a bit higher than last month’s.

• Our “Under Contract Show” AND “Under Contract No show”/Pending sales combined total of 183 is once again higher than that past two years at this same date but not as much of a difference than prior months this fall. We have 4% more properties under contract than at the same time in 2015 and 18.8% more than January 6, 2014. We are on pace to have a relatively good start to 2017.

A closer look at the chart:

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