February 2023 Housing Market Update

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As we head into February, the start of 2023’s housing market performed as expected. We had limited inventory which drove up sale prices and there was a significant increase in homes that went under contract.

Limited Inventory

Looking at the past few years there were 2223 new listings in January of 2021.  There were 1915 new listings in January of 2022 and an estimated 1300 new listings in January of 2023.  That is an increase from the 981 new listings that were added in the month of December 2022 but we are well below the previous year’s inventory.

*2023 listing data estimated from weekly data collection via NJMLS on single-family, multi-family, condo, co-op, and townhomes. Does not include data that NJMLS has with regard to off-markets.

Increased Home Prices

I am in the field selling,  I was in multiple bidding wars this month and the one offer I got accepted was above asking with great terms.  We had a listing get multiple offers in less than 24 hours as well as a property that was overpriced and sitting on the market from 2022 that got above market value in early January. Every year we see a lack of inventory in January that drives up prices due to supply and demand.

I don’t have the data on this and nobody will until the end of February/March.  The reason being homes typically take 30-90 days to close (averaging around 45 days) and then NJMLS takes another 15 days or so to compile the data. However, I am confident there will be an increase in sale prices at the end of February/March compared to January and early February which reflect homes that went under contract at the end of 2022.

 Increase In Under Contracts

In the fall I told buyers to get their homes on the market for January.  Every year there is a surge of homes that sat during the holidays that get great offers and go under contract in January.  This year was no different. In Mid-January we saw a 131% increase of properties going under contract.  The same week we saw just a 19% increase in new inventory.