Back to school! Even my daughter is excited to be back to school at Murphy Elementary – which is a true blessing! Schools are starting all over the United States, and as a result, folks are busy. Parents and grandparents alike are busy getting their children back into the “grind.” Every year, we see a drop in new buyers coming in for 2-4 weeks during August when schools are starting back.

Even with the “Back to School” effect, the past two weeks in the real estate market have been HUGELY impressive in Murphy NC! In the past 14 days, an astronomical TWENTY-SIX properties went under contract and are currently pending totaling upwards of $4.1 million in potential real estate transactions. Coupled with the 19 properties that have sold and closed in the past 14 days, which makes for a great August when over $2.7 million is already closed in a two week period.

Over the past month, the average selling price of a home has been fluctuating from $130,253 to $148,068. July yielded the highest average selling price at $188,683. With all this being said, it makes sense that 61% of our market activity has been on properties priced $175,000 and under. With that said, we’re seeing two “holes” in the real estate inventory where supply is dwindling.

• Properties priced at less than $100,000 are selling very well – so well in fact that supply has dropped more than 36% in the past 12 months.
• Properties priced from $125,000 to $150,000 have benefited from a 38.3% reduction in inventory in the past year.

Interestingly enough, our new system also finds developing demand as well as price points that do not have active buyers. For example, the price range of $300,000 – $325,000 has had no demand in the past year, indicating a need for homes in those ranges to get under $300,000, which is a significantly more active price range.

Land is another category that needs attention. In the first quarter of 2009, there seemed to be no buyers searching for land. In fact, it was the lowest land sales ever since July of 2002! With that being said, we had nowhere to go but up! Sales volume in land has literally more than doubled since then and Realtors are experiencing more land buyers than we’ve had this entire year. Sales have largely been attributed to tracts less than three acres. In fact, they account for 70% of the transactions and 55% of total land dollar volume.

2009 is an exciting year for real estate and we look forward to a continually growing market. August has been a great month and we will continue to work for more to come! We appreciate your business very much, and if there’s anything we can do to help you or someone you know, please let us know! We’re in business because of you.

Written and researched by John Poltrock of The Poltrock Team at RE/MAX Mountain Properties can be reached at 877-837-3002 or by email at JohnPoltrock@gmail.com – You can read a summarized version of this article in the business section Murphy’s #1 Newspaper – The Cherokee Scout.

You can read previous editions of the Murphy NC Real Estate Market Solds and Update by Clicking Here