The US property market saw properties almost flying off the shelves last year according to new research from an online property portal. In 2017, homes took just 81 days closure making it the fastest year for sales on record. With inventory dropping still further and house prices rising, the US property market looks set for an even quicker year in 2018.
Figures released for 2017 in late April, reveals a highly competitive market last year with buyers in bidding wars to secure their favoured property. Not only did houses spend the shortest time ever on the market, inventory levels plummeted adding more urgency to sales.
Shortest time ever on market
In 2017, the average sales time on the US property market was just 81 days. This represents a drop of 9 days on 2016. Given that properties typically take four to six weeks to close the period that a house was actually available to buyers was an average of around 30 days.
The busiest month in 2017 was June when homes were sold in an average of 73 days across the country. In most of the 35 biggest metro areas included in the study, the months of June, July and August saw the busiest sales.
The report also found that buyers took around four months to find a property and made an average of two offers.
Flying sales in California
While sales warmed up throughout the US generally, some parts of the country entered red-hot territory. California was one of them with sales in two metro areas taking place in less than a month and a half.
San Jose stood in first place for the fastest sales of all, followed by San Francisco.
Busy sales in Florida
Three Florida metro areas are highlighted for their performance: Miami, Orlando and Tampa. The Tampa Bay area saw the busiest sales in Florida with properties taking 81 days to closure. In the busiest months of July and August this figure dropped to 77.
Orlando properties took very slightly longer to be sold – 86 days was the average in 2017. Sales sped up in July, the fastest month, to 78 days.
At the other end of the scale was Miami. Florida’s most famous city saw relatively slow sales last year when properties took an average of 110 days to change hands. This was the second longest in the US after New York where homes sold in an average of 134 days.
Challenging times for buyers in 2018
While the study reflects figures for last year, data for 2018 so far shows no signs of a change in trend. Prices continue to rise across the US property market where lack of supply remains an acute problem. Buyers face tighter competition both to find a desirable property within their budget and to make an offer high enough to deter other buyers.
“As demand has outpaced supply, buying a home has become an exercise in speed and agility,” said Aaron Terrazas, a Senior Economist. “This is shaping up to another competitive home shopping season for buyers, who may have to linger on the market until they find the right home but then sprint across the finish line once they do.”
(Source: online property portal)
