Summary

In summarizing the activity for April, real estate agents in Gales Ferry had 40 homes listed for sale as of May 1st.  This is 5 more than the 35 homes which were actively listed on April 3rd.  Also, 22 of these 40 listings were active a month ago on April 3rd. 11 them were active 3 months ago on February 1st as well.  In addition, 14 homes were under deposit as of May 1st.  Buyers and sellers completed 9 closing transactions. Finally, realtors added 16 new listings to the CTMLS in April for Gales Ferry.

Active Listings

For the 40 homes actively listed on May 1st, the living area averaged over 1800 square feet.  The median was a bit lower at around 1700 square feet. The range of living areas ran from just under 1000 to almost 3400 square feet.  Homes offered between 2 and 5 bedrooms with the average at 3.5 bedrooms.  In addition, these homes included from 1 to 3 full bathrooms.  The average number of full bathrooms was 1.9 with 26 (~65%) of these homes including a single half-bathroom.  The following charts provide some additional perspective on size-related attributes of the actively-listed homes.

Pcnt-Beds Pcnt-LvgArea

The average price for a home actively listed in Gales Ferry on May 1st was about $270,000.  The median list price at $262,500 was not too far off the average list price.  Listing prices were in a wide range range from $39,000 to almost $460,000.  The following chart shows how the average listing price varies with number of bedrooms and living area and shows the number of houses listed in each category for homes actively listed on May 1st in Gales Ferry.

LP-Vartns

Recent Activity

There were 14 homes under deposit as of May 1st as well.  The average listing price for these homes was a bit under $235,000 with prices in the range of $85,000 to $365,000.  The median was higher at a little over $242,000.  The average size was about 1625 square feet with an average of 3.6 bedrooms and 1.9 full bathrooms.  In addition, 10 (~71%) offered a single half-bathroom as well.  These homes had been actively listed for an average of 35 days.

There were closings on 9 homes in Gales Ferry last month in April, which was 1 fewer than the 10 that closed the previous April in 2016 and 2 fewer than the 11 that sold the preceding month in March 2017.  The average closing price for the homes which closed in April 2017 was a little under $215,000.  However, the median here was higher also at $233,000.  The average living area size was close to 1950 square feet. On average, these homes offered 3.8 bedrooms and 1.9 full bathrooms.  6 (~67%) offered a single half-bathroom.  Finally, the corresponding listings were active on the market for an average of 100 days.

Past Closings

The chart below shows the number of homes sold per quarter from 2012 through the first quarter of 2017. It shows general improvements each year since 2013.  The first quarter of 2107 was better than the first quarter in any of the preceding 5 years.

Homes Sold-5Yrs-byQrtr

In delving a bit more into the detail, the average closing price for the 26 homes which closed in 1Q17 was almost $230,000.  The median was not much lower at almost $220,000.  The closing prices for these homes were in the range of $69,000 to $415,000.  In addition, the living areas averaged 1900 square feet with sizes ranging from 960 to almost 3800 square feet.  These homes averaged 3.5 bedrooms, offering from 3 to 5 bedrooms.  Also, there were between 1 and 4 full bathrooms with an average of 1.9 full bathrooms.  14 (~54%) offered one or two half-bathrooms as well.  Their listings were active for an average 68 days – a bit over 2 months.

For comparison, there were only 17 closings the previous year in the 1st quarter of 2016.  The range of closing prices from $80,500 to just over $370,000 was slightly narrower.  The average of approximately $216,000 was slightly lower than that for 1Q17.  At $216,000, the median closing price was equivalent to that for the same period in the preceding year.  These homes were more or less equivalent in size to those which sold in 1Q17.  The average living area was just under 1900 square feet.  However, the range of sizes was a bit broader running from almost 865 to just about 4500 square feet.  They averaged 3.4 bedrooms and 1.7 full baths.  9 (~53%) of them included an additional half-bathroom as well.  Finally, the corresponding listings for these homes were active on the market for about a month longer at 92 days on the average.

Longer-Term Retrospective

Next, the chart below shows a 12-month quarterly “rolling average” for closing prices broken out by bedroom count as well as an overall average for the 20 quarters comprising the 5-year period from 2Q2012 through 1Q2017.  It suggests that closing prices have been more or less holding steady overall and for homes with 3 and 4 bedrooms.  There seems to have been more fluctuation in the prices for the 2 and 5-6 bedroom homes.  Generally, as indicated by the “linear” trend line for the overall average (added using an MS-Excel feature), the trend has been slightly positive.

CPs-5YrsxBedrm

In addition, the background bars in blue in this chart above show a 12-month quarterly “rolling average” for the number of days listings stayed active on the market for the same 5-year period.  This suggests that the amount of time a listing remains active remains low relative to 2012 and 2013.  Although there was a slight increase recently, homes seem to be selling more quickly on the average than they were some years ago.

The final chart below shows a 12-month quarterly “rolling average” for closing prices for homes broken down by range of living area as well as an overall average for the same time period.  This also suggests that the average closing prices have more or less held steady over the period for most mid-sized homes with price fluctuations most notable in the larger and smaller homes.

CPs-5YrsxLvngArea

More interestingly, the background bars in blue in this chart show a 12-month quarterly “rolling average” for the overall closing price PER SQUARE FOOT over the same 5-year period.  This metric might suggest that from a buyer’s perspective, they are getting more living area overall for their money than they were 5 years ago.

Conclusion

The data reported above was obtained from the CTMLS as of 5/1/2017. We’ll be monitoring the market over the coming months to see if there are other trends or data of interest which we can share with you and will post these to our Gales Ferry Real Estate Page.

If you are considering purchasing a home in the Gales Ferry area or if you would like to work with a local Realtor, please feel free to call us. We would love to help you buy or sell your next home.