With temperatures still sweltering, the local real estate market is wrapping up its busy summer season with a sprint to the finish as home sales broke 500 for a third straight month.
About 504 homes sold last month in Bryan, Chatham and Effingham counties, four less than July and 19 less than the year before, but still breaking the benchmark, according to latest data from the Savannah Multi-List Corp.
“This is the first time we’ve had three consecutive months with sales over 500,” said Jennifer Scroggs, president of the Savannah Area Realtors. “Based on what we have under contract, we should exceed that in September also.”
Overall, sales are up slightly from last summer, when 1,537 units sold from June through July. This year a total of 1,558 units sold over the same period, an increase of 1.4 percent.
New homes have been a bright spot, continually outpacing numbers from the last few years. About 101 new construction homes were put under contract in August in the metro area, up 25 percent from last year. Effingham in particular had a strong month with 38 new homes put under contract, the highest to date.
Supply stayed roughly the same as July at 6.5 months of inventory, or 3,257 active listings. Scroggs noted that inventory had actually increased over the year.
“It looks like, year over year, our listings are up 21 percent since last August and that should moderate
price increases and result in continued home affordability in our market,” said Scroggs.
The southside 31419 ZIP code led with the most sales at 81 units. Pooler and Richmond Hill rounded out the top three ZIP codes with 67 and 56 homes sold.
Median prices slipped to $165,000 from a July high of $187,000 and represented a 5.3 percent drop from August 2013.
The Savannah-area housing market (Chatham, Bryan and Effingham counties) broke 500 units sold for a third straight month in August. A look at home sales in the local residential market, including single-family homes, modulars, mobile homes, townhomes and condominiums.
June. ’13: 481 June. ’14: 546
July ’13: 523 July. ’14: 508
Aug. ’13: 523 Aug. ’14: 504
How many homes sold in your ZIP code in August? A look at the top 10 areas.
31419: 81
31324: 67
31322: 56
31405: 46
31312: 33
31410: 33
31326: 25
31401: 25
31411: 21
31404: 20
Source: Savannah Multi-List Corp.