The Spring Market is here! With such a soft start to the year, was March strong enough to catch the Lawrence Market up to where it was last year? In some ways, yes. In other ways, not so much. Here's how things are shaking out.
The simplest way to put it is to say that we're in almost the exact same position at this point this year that we were at last year. At least in terms of average price and time-on-market. However, we are still way down in sales and new listings. That means it's tight. Maybe tighter than ever before. This is all despite the fact that interest rates are far higher today than they were a year ago today. It's still a strong Seller's Market out there!
All of the stats that follow are sourced from the Lawrence MLS. What follows is a look at some numbers through the month of March 2023 within the city limits of Lawrence:
Month-over-Month
- March home sales increased by 100% from the previous month (70 vs 35)
- Average price actually declined by 7% in March vs. the previous month; Median sales price dipped 14% to $279K
- Median Days-on-Market dropped in homes closed in March to 5 days from 12 for homes closed in February
- 104 homes were listed in March, an increase from 60 listed in February
- List-Price-to-Sales-Price Ratio for March was 99.77%
Year-over-Year
- Home sales were down 6.7% in March '23 vs March '22, a drop of 5 homes sold
- Average Price is flat YoY at $302K; Median was flat at 279K to from February '22 to $326K
- Dollar Volume was down 7% vs March '22 for a total of $21.1M in the month
- List-Price-to-Sales-Price Ratio decreased to 99.5% in February '23 from 102% a year ago
- The 104 homes listed last month was a decrease from 144 listed in March last year
YTD
- Home sales are down 25% for the year through March (149 vs 199)
- Average price so far in 2023 is up 4.7% to $313,000 vs the same period last year
- Median Price is up 3.6% to $285,000
- Median DOM is roughly flat vs a year ago
- Total Homes Listed this year totals 218; a decline of 28.5% through March '22
- Total Dollar Volume in 2023 is down 22%; At the end of March last year the Lawrence market totaled $59.7M and so far this year we're sitting at $46.6M
Active Properties
- There are 65"Active" properties in Lawrence as of this writing
- There are 92 properties currently listed as "Under Contract." This is an increase of 16.5% since my last market update
The stats certainly seem to present a mixed-bag. The decline in number of new listings and sales is pretty staggering. But, prices are stable with modest increases. While there certainly seems to be fewer buyers in the market compared to last year, the ones that remain are serious and they're making competitive offers. Multiple-offer situations are the norm, not the exception. But with slightly less competition, it's an easier market to navigate in some ways. Especially if you're a home seller who has to sell in order to buy a new home. We say it should be viewed as an opportunity!
Stay tuned to R+K Real Estate for great new content, updates, advice, opinions and more in 2022. We plan to continue our advance of transparency, consumer advocacy, and empowering our clients with alternate business models designed to provide high levels or real estate service with drastically reduced commissions!
-Ryan Desch, Broker/Owner R+K Real Estate Solutions
