Around New Jersey – Gloucester County

Gloucester County – The Numbers Tell the Story

Let’s take a look at what’s been happening in Gloucester County, NJ, which is adjacent to Philadelphia. It becomes an interesting study on how real estate can appear to go sideways and yet go up at the same time.

Back in 2018, the number of single-family homes available on the market in Gloucester was 1,762 for the month of October 2018, with a total of 352 single-family homes closing that month. It took an average of 73 days to sell those homes with the average median sales price back in October 2018 being $167,000.

The average single-family home median price in November of 2020 had climbed all the way to $250,000. In addition to the median price climbing so dramatically, the percent of list price obtained or received by the seller hit 101.1% of the asking price.

To further support this historic run-up in price and buyer demand is the plummeting of available inventory dropping from 1,762 in October 2018 to just 509 in November 2020. That puts the months supply of inventory at a record low of 1.5 months; lower than any county throughout the state of New Jersey. So how do we frame this market?

1. One of the reasons for low inventory, especially in this county that is adjacent to Philadelphia, is proximity to an urban center.
2. The second reason for the surge of buyers into the region had to be the pandemic combined with low interest rates and lower-priced homes.
3. A third reason is that in the post-pandemic economy, Gloucester County affords a less populated region.

All told, right now Gloucester County real estate appears to have a strong demand driving prices higher, but this is clearly not going to be sustainable moving forward.