After a solid kickoff to the spring home-buying season in March, home sales dipped slightly in the Savannah metro area last month.
A total of 414 homes sold in April, according to the Savannah Multi-List Corps, five fewer than in March and 10 percent fewer than the previous year.
“Spring has just gotten a late start,” said Austin Hill of Austin Hill Realty. “People are really taking their time and being thorough when purchasing property.”
He said more sales had gone pending in the last 30 days than is typical during this time of year, most likely due to bad weather bumping home-buying activity later into spring.
“A lot of other agencies say they had a slow start to the year, but we’re seeing a lot go pending,” said Hill. “Maybe people were waiting to see what the inventory was going to look like… people are more in the mood to sit back and wait.”
View listed homes for sale in the Savannah area by zip code and price
Jennifer Scroggs, president of the Savannah Board of Realtors, said a bright spot was the steady decrease of time homes spent on the market.
“April year-to-year median active days on the market for the tri-county area has decreased by 22 percent,” said Scroggs. “April also showed a huge upswing in unit sales on a month to month and year to year — up by 25 percent — basis.”
There were 3,195 active listings, the equivalent of 7.72 months of inventory, a little higher than March and in line with the higher averages at the start of this year.
Despite the appearance of higher inventory, many realtors say there aren’t enough homes in the places and price ranges that people want.
The top-selling ZIP codes in April included Southside with 53 sales, Pooler with 48 and Guyton with 45, areas such as Wilmington Island, Midtown and West Savannah also posted strong numbers.
Median home sale prices slipped from last month’s average of $170,000 to $168,500. However, that number is a 6.7 percent increase over the year.
“For the first time since 2008, you’re really seeing the investors hit the market again,” said Hill. “Contractors, builders, all of that’s kind of coming back. I’ve seen a lot of new construction that won’t even hit the market until six months from now.”
According to the Multi-List data, the number of new homes under contract spiked to 112, 30 percent higher over the year. New homes are going in from The Landings to Ardsley Park to several infills and renovations downtown.
Hill believes that with pending sales and new construction, summer sales may pick up rather than drop-off.
“I think that will lead to good summer numbers,” said Hill. “A lot of indicators out there say we’re going to have a good market this year.”
BY THE NUMBERS
The Savannah-area housing market (Chatham, Bryan and Effingham counties) dipped slightly in April with 414 home sales. A look at home sales in the local residential market, including single-family homes, modulars, mobile homes, townhomes and condominiums.
Jan. ’13: 308 Jan. ’14: 314
Feb. ’13: 298 Feb. ’14: 328
March ’13: 391 March. ’14: 419
April ’13: 463 April ’14: 414
TOP-SELLING AREAS
How many homes sold in your ZIP code in April? A look at the 10 top-selling areas.
31419: 53
31322: 48
31312: 45
31324: 39
31405: 35
31410: 30
31411: 29
31326: 23
31401: 22
31404: 22
Source: Savannah Multi-List Corp.