For the month of May in the entire Savannah MLS (which covers all of Chatham, Effingham, Bryan, and parts of Long and Liberty Counties), we have seen the following:
There were 1,667 homes total on the market in May. This brings us to a total of 1.7 months of inventory, compared to 1.36 months of inventory in March, and 1.47 months worth in April. In a balanced market, we expect to see 6 months of inventory, so we are still very much in a seller’s market.
Here, we can see the trends from the last 5 years of months of inventory (in green – remember, the balanced market is right around 6 months) & median home sale prices (in blue).
And this chart shows us the trends, also over the last 5 years, of the number of new listings (green) & number of houses sold (blue).
Another interesting trend we can see through this graph is the number of homes that have sold each month over the past 5 years for under $250,000.
For those interested in multifamily properties, here are a few graphs to look at:
Savannah’s number of multifamily listings was up to 25 properties in May 2022, compared to 27 active in April 2022 and 21 active last May (2021).
This chart shows us trends over 5 years of new listings (in green) compared with the number of closings (in blue) for multifamily properties.
And this zooms in to just the past year’s number of multifamily new listings and closings by month:
The fact that months of inventory continues to stay low even though the number of new listings is roughly in line with historic trends can point to only one thing – there are a lot of people moving to Savannah, and supply is not keeping up. This is great news if you’re a seller of course, not so much if you’re a buyer. The good news for buyers is this – population forecasts for the next five years point to a continued trend of migration to Savannah. We do not believe that prices will decline as long as folks are still moving here faster than they’re building houses – that’s basic economics.
Interest rates rising have so far had little to no effect on the market. Some buyers are beginning to bow out of the market, but most are simply looking at lower price points. The other harsh truth for those in need of housing is this – rents have risen sharply over the past two years as well, and supply of available rentals is very tight. For example, on May the 2nd of this year I ran a search to see how many 3 bedroom rentals are available in Chatham county for less than $1600/mo – I counted five. Two years ago I would have been able to find 30 or more.
If interest rates continue to climb, then they will eventually reach a point where they cool the market. When and if we get there is hard to say.
If you’re interested in seeing some trends in individual segments of the market, please keep scrolling. As always, we love to answer your questions – please don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to pick our brains about any of the information you see here today!
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