RE/MAX: Buyer Demand Fuels Soaring Sales

Feb 18, 2020

New data from RE/MAX has determined the highest year-over-year gain for January home sales in 11 years, increasing an average of 10.5 percent. January and December (which recorded a 13.5 percent increase in sales) marked the first back-to-back months with double-digit year-over-year growth in home sales since June and July of 2015.

"Strong buyer demand continues to be the defining theme in the housing market," said Adam Contos, CEO of RE/MAX Holdings Inc. "January sales were encouraging, and were likely pushed in part by millennials coming into the market. It's a massive group of people, with many of them forming households and looking to buy their first homes. Affordability and limited supply are still constraints, but overall, housing is in a much better place than it was a year ago."

RE/MAX found January's median sales price at $256,000, down 3.4 percent from December, but up by 8.9 percent than January 2019. This marked the 13th consecutive month of year-over-year price increases.

The average number of days on the market for homes sold in January was 59, up six days from the average in December and equivalent to the average in January 2019. The number of homes for sale in January 2020 was down five percent from the previous month and down 15.6 percent from one year earlier. The inventory supply of 3.1 months was lower than the 3.6 months in December and the 4.5 months in January 2019.

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Phil Hall

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Feb 18, 2020

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