Last month we were pretty excited about the number of sales growing quite steadily throughout 2014. However, the percentage of sales compared to last year in July was -3.1%, and now it has dropped again to -4.3%. Don’t lose hope, though, because August is known for its slow-down. Folks get busy with back-to-school and end-of-summer vacations. We predict a healthy amount of sales to close out the year. Why? Check out the amount of contracts that have been written lately!

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Although we don’t like to see the number of units sold dropping, sales prices are on the rise, and average price per square foot is nearly $106, plus the amount of time homes are sitting on the market is 20 days less than last year.

Good news! The number of contracts written this month jumped 9% compared to last month, which means the year-to-date contracts have crossed over the “zero” mark and we’re now in the positive! 811 contracts have been written this year so far, which is 2.3% more than last year during the same time. This is great news because most of these will eventually turn into SALES! (And, you’ll notice on the first graph below that contracts have increased for 4 years in a row.)

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August is pretty predictable when it comes to sales, but the number of contracts written exceeded our expectations. Compared to last year, sales are down 4.3%, but contracts are up 2.3%, so this fact alone gives us something to look forward to… more sales to come. Sellers can still list with confidence because homes are selling for almost 97% of final asking price and sitting on the market for 20 days less than last year at this time (not quite 6 months). Buyers still have a nice selection of inventory to choose from. Stay tuned for more market trends…

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