The National Association of Realtors® reported that existing home sales rose in 2017 from 2016 by 3.5%, and new-home sales are expected to reach 620,000.
New Jersey
In New Jersey, despite the nosedive of inventory on the market of over 20%, closed sales increased by over 14%.
The New Jersey Realtor® Association reported closed sales increased from 13,305 in 2016 to 15,269 in 2017. This increase came despite the 20.8% falloff in inventory, from 45,030 in 2016 to 36,651 in 2017.
Still, with the decrease in supply, there was a slight up-tick in closed sales by 0.01% in 2017 from 2016.
Nationally, the first quarter of 2017 was the best quarterly existing sales pace in exactly a decade, 5.62 million.
The National Association of Realtors® expects that housing starts in 2017 will top 1.27 million, which is an 8.4% improvement over 2016. Still, according to Lawrence Yun, the need for 1.5 million new homes to make up for the insufficient building will not be met.
Despite the frustration fomenting from the industry professionals, the shortage in supply, affordability and modest economic growth is keeping this market from overheating.
The Good News in the Bad News
With household incomes remaining stagnant, rental costs edging higher, and inventory getting sparser, all of this is keeping a cap on the market. There is also the increase in affordability and coupled with the speed of list to sale of properties, this market is expected to maintain its upward momentum.