For the fifth straight month, Charlotte home sales continued to drop, with September seeing a 15.3 percent decline from sales figures for September 2017.
A total of 3,642 properties sold in September compared to 4,302 sold in September 2017. Sales fell more than 19 percent from August’s figures, according to the monthly report from the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association.
Year-to-date sales are down 1.8 percent from the first nine months in 2017.
What led to such a dramatic drop for the month? In part, Hurricane Florence. In general, Summer sales slumped from previous years. That, coupled with storm recovery efforts from flood and wind damage, dealt a blow to local sales, according to CarolinaMLS President Jason Gentry.
As is typical for a seller’s market like the Charlotte region has seen, average sales prices continued to increase for September, while inventory dropped. Average sales prices rose 5.2 percent to $281,533, up from $267,496 in September 2017. Median sales prices rose 5.1 percent to $235,000.
Year-over-year inventory fell 11.7 percent to 10,210 properties for sale. That amounts to 2.5 months supply of homes. A year ago, the CMLS region had 2.8 months supply.
Average and median sales prices dropped 4.3 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively, from August, which may suggest the market is headed toward some semblance of balance. Lack of inventory has bolstered a strong seller’s market for the better part of a year. The market typically slows in the cooler months, so the market may start to level out as buyer demand wanes.
Another sign of a cooling market, pending sales dropped 6.6 percent to 3,659 homes under contract for September. Compared to August, pending sales dropped 23.3 percent. New residential listing also decreased to 4,333 in September, a decline of 10.5 percent. Listings were down more than 23 percent compared to August.
While list prices continue to rise, the percent of list price received dropped slightly in September. Average list prices for September jumped 3.7 percent to $320,242. Percent of list price dropped just 0.1 percent to 96.7 percent.
More localized data from around the CMLS region:
City of Charlotte: Average sales price rose 9.6% to $297,140; closed sales fell nearly 17% to 1,187 in September; inventory dropped 4.6% to 2,670 homes on the market or a 2-month supply, which is unchanged.
Uptown Charlotte: Average sales price dropped 5.1% to $331,482; closed sales fell 27.5% to 29 in September; inventory fell 11.7% to 83 properties on the market or a 2.7-month supply, which is unchanged.
Charlotte Metropolitan Statistical Area (includes Charlotte, Concord, Gastonia and Rock Hill, S.C.: Average sales price increased by 5.8% to $285,674; closed sales dropped by 13.4% to 3,139 in September; inventory fell by 6.3% to 8,070, a 2.3-month supply, which is a drop of 8 percent.