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Ripple Drive Williamsport, Md. (By Joe Crocetta/Staff Photographer / February 2, 2013) |
Washington County’s home sales market bumped up in 2012 over the previous year for its first annual increase since before the recession.
Sales rose 2 percent to $187.7 million in total purchases, compared to $183.5 million in 2011, according to data from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.
The price of homes sold jumped about 8 percent, the MRIS data shows. Although fewer properties were sold, those that did sold much faster than at 2011’s pace, the data shows.
This is good news, but there’s a bad side to it, too, said Betty Hays, president of the Pen-Mar Regional Association of Realtors, which has more than 500 members in Washington County and in Pennsylvania’s Franklin and Fulton counties.
First-time homebuyers are in the $100,000 to maybe $150,000 range, said Hays, who noted “that price range is very active right now.”
Buyers have “come out now because interest rates are down,” and the fiscal cliff and the presidential election have passed.
Although prices are rising, there aren’t enough houses for sale in the next-highest price range for home sellers who want to move up, Hays said.
“There’s a lot of neighborhoods where houses were selling for $450,000 five years ago that are selling now for, say, $250,000 or $350,000,” Hays said. As a result, not many of those owners are putting their homes up for sale yet, she said.
Hays said she expects the bottleneck to ease as prices climb.
“They can’t get perhaps what they paid, but lower inventory is going to make those prices go up,” Hays said.
“The good news is, overall, prices will start to go up. They’re not going to reach the bubble,” she said, referring to 2006’s peak prices.
“With the law of supply and demand, they’re going to go up. And, I think, more buyers are starting to go into the market right now because interest rates are so good,” she said.
Buyers coming back
The market’s upward turn here is being mirrored in some ways by what is happening nationwide.
Limited inventory is maintaining an upward momentum in home prices, according to the National Association of Realtors.
“Total sales in 2012 were the highest in five years, while the annual price rose the most since 2005,” NAR said.
“Record low mortgage interest rates clearly are helping many homebuyers, but tight inventory and restrictive mortgage underwriting standards are limiting sales,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said.
According to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., known as Freddie Mac, the national average rate for a 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgage was 3.42 percent as of Jan. 24. A year ago, the average rate was 3.98 percent, its website showed.
“The number of potential buyers who stayed on the sidelines accumulated during the recession, but they started entering the market early last year as their financial ability and confidence steadily grew, along with home prices,” Yun said.
Sales rose 2 percent to $187.7 million in total purchases, compared to $183.5 million in 2011, according to data from Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc.
The price of homes sold jumped about 8 percent, the MRIS data shows. Although fewer properties were sold, those that did sold much faster than at 2011’s pace, the data shows.
This is good news, but there’s a bad side to it, too, said Betty Hays, president of the Pen-Mar Regional Association of Realtors, which has more than 500 members in Washington County and in Pennsylvania’s Franklin and Fulton counties.
First-time homebuyers are in the $100,000 to maybe $150,000 range, said Hays, who noted “that price range is very active right now.”
Buyers have “come out now because interest rates are down,” and the fiscal cliff and the presidential election have passed.
Although prices are rising, there aren’t enough houses for sale in the next-highest price range for home sellers who want to move up, Hays said.
“There’s a lot of neighborhoods where houses were selling for $450,000 five years ago that are selling now for, say, $250,000 or $350,000,” Hays said. As a result, not many of those owners are putting their homes up for sale yet, she said.
Hays said she expects the bottleneck to ease as prices climb.
“They can’t get perhaps what they paid, but lower inventory is going to make those prices go up,” Hays said.
“The good news is, overall, prices will start to go up. They’re not going to reach the bubble,” she said, referring to 2006’s peak prices.
“With the law of supply and demand, they’re going to go up. And, I think, more buyers are starting to go into the market right now because interest rates are so good,” she said.
Buyers coming back
The market’s upward turn here is being mirrored in some ways by what is happening nationwide.
Limited inventory is maintaining an upward momentum in home prices, according to the National Association of Realtors.
“Total sales in 2012 were the highest in five years, while the annual price rose the most since 2005,” NAR said.
“Record low mortgage interest rates clearly are helping many homebuyers, but tight inventory and restrictive mortgage underwriting standards are limiting sales,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said.
According to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., known as Freddie Mac, the national average rate for a 30-year conventional fixed-rate mortgage was 3.42 percent as of Jan. 24. A year ago, the average rate was 3.98 percent, its website showed.
“The number of potential buyers who stayed on the sidelines accumulated during the recession, but they started entering the market early last year as their financial ability and confidence steadily grew, along with home prices,” Yun said.
