by Lorraine Ryall
Associate Broker with KOR Properties
The active listing count continues to rise, which is bad news for sellers. The good news is that sales count is getting stronger and only down -1.9% from the same time last year compared to -11.2% last month. But the fact still remains, that even with this higher sales supply is still rising. There are simply more sellers than we expected, with new listings 63% higher than this time last year.
Closed pricing is still looking surprisingly strong, but this is heavily skewed by high-end deals that were agreed before pandemonium hit the stock market. The luxury market is highly dependent on how wealthy people feel about their investments, and they have gone from ebullient in early January to despondent in early April. This change is not reflected in closings, but it appears to be making itself felt in active list pricing and under contract counts for the top end of the market.
With the Cromford® Market Index now below 80, (100 is balanced) the downward pressure on prices is building just as inflation starts to tick up again.
