Mid-Quarter Update

I usually wait until the end of the quarter to take a look at the quarter’s activity in the Durham luxury home market but it’s been an interesting summer in some ways. The summer is usually not particularly active but since July 1, six homes in the $700,000 or more category have closed and another 8 are pending. Inventory is down slightly to 79 active listings. What is interesting is that 21 of those homes have been on the market less than 60 days. The inventory is down from 86 homes at the end of the quarter. If this doesn’t add up for you it is because there have been a number of homes that have been withdrawn from the market during the period or the listings expired. This suggests to me that if the market was a little more vibrant than the inventory would be much higher. Many sellers will not (or can not) cut their prices and will stay put until the market improves. Only three of the 14 closed or pending homes are new homes, which suggests some improvement in the resale market. Let’s hope this trend continues. At the end of the quarter, I’ll compare Durham’s statistics with our neighbors to the east and west.