September 2020 Sales Recap
The September results are in for Maine Real Estate Market, and it is red hot and showing no signs of cooling off. The Maine Associations of Realtor’s numbers show sales of single-family homes from September 2020 compared to September 2019 increased 22.78%. Year to date numbers show we have sold 425 more homes in 2020 vs. 2019. All of this is being done with lower inventories. Like previous months, the low interest rates and plenty of qualified buyers have pushed the median sale for September 2020 up 19.5 %, an increase of $44,750 from September 2019. In previous months, the mix of out of state buyers have run around 25%, it is now up to 33%.
Lawrence Yun of the National Association of Realtors said this is the time of year when the market would be slowing, but not this year. Yun feels another factor affecting the market is buyers are investing in vacation homes, because of the flexibility of working from anywhere.
National September Sales by region compared to a year ago:
Northeast: up 22.9 % Median Sale Price up 17.8%.
Midwest: up 19.8 % Median Sale Price up 14.8%.
South: up 22.3 % Median Sale Price up 13%.
West: up 18.1 % Median Sale Price up 17.1%.
Linda and I are here to talk, and to help buyers and sellers navigate this extremely competitive market. With the inevitable shortage of inventory going forward, the following arguments can be made:
It is the best time to sell, lock in your profits.
It is best time to buy, lock down the lower interest rates.
Source: Maine Real Estate Information System, Inc. (d/b/a Maine Listings). Note: Maine Listings, a subsidiary of the Maine Association of REALTORS®, is a statewide Multiple Listing Service with over 5,400 licensees inputting active and sold property listing data. Statistics reflect properties reported as sold in the system within the time periods indicated.