Home sales rose for the fifth straight month in October. Utah Realtors sold nearly six hundred more homes than they did last year. That’s a gain of nearly twenty-five percent and the fourth consecutive month of double-digit increases.
So far this year, Utah home sales are up more than seven percent compared to the same ten months in 2010.
Sales increases should continue in subsequent months. Pending sales, which measure future activity, were up nearly twenty-one percent year-over-year and nearly ten percent year-to-date.
The number of homes for sale has come down more than twenty-one percent. This is the fewest number of homes on the market since mid-2007. Inventory declines have been in the double digits for eight consecutive months.
Homes are also being absorbed at their fastest pace in more than four years. In October, it would have taken eight-and-a-half months to sell all listed homes. That’s down significantly from last year when it would have taken more than eleven months.
Some counties’ supply is even lower, which is helping prices. In Uintah County, the month’s supply is in the four-month range and prices are up nearly fourteen percent. Washington County is in the six-month range and prices are up eleven percent.
Statewide, the median sales price fell about four percent. This is the smallest drop since last November. Prices have been in the one hundred seventy-five thousand dollar range since January.
Statewide, sellers received more of their asking prices in October. Owners received an average of ninety-one percent of their asking price compared to eighty-nine percent last year.
Affordability also continued its upward trend. A typical Utah family now makes one-hundred-sixty-two percent of what is needed to qualify for a median-priced home.
