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Mid-state home sales are dropping because there aren’t enough to meet demand
Paula Wolf, Contributing Writer//March 22, 2021//
Mid-state home sales are dropping because there aren’t enough to meet demand
Harrisburg-area homes sales have started to hit the brakes, but it’s not for lack of buyers.
It’s for lack of inventory, said Adrian Smith, president of the Greater Harrisburg Association of Realtors.
In February, sales were down 4.2% in Cumberland, Dauphin and Perry counties from the year before, declining from 473 settlements to 453. And although the drop-off was slight, the slowdown was felt in all three.
Smith said he’s hearing stories about properties with 30-40 showings, and 10-plus offers on houses are becoming more commonplace.
“The inventory is just not out there,” he said. Otherwise, “we would set records.”
There were 236 active listings in February for Cumberland, according to the Greater Harrisburg Association of Realtors; the five-year average was 759. The comparable numbers were 253 and 896 for Dauphin and 42 and 95 for Perry.
Days on market fell across the board in February, from 62 to 33 in Cumberland County, 51 to 27 in Dauphin County and 51 to 41 in Perry County.
Nationally, the median home price was at an all-time high last year — $297,000 — and the local market is seeing prices continue to rise, Smith said.
In Cumberland County, the median sales price climbed 8.2% in February, from $214,500 to $232,000. In Dauphin County, it rose from $164,900 to $168,500, or 2.2%. In Perry County it went up 5%, from $147,500 to $154,900.
Smith said there are countervailing forces at work. The advent of spring usually brings more listings, but the increasing cost of new home construction is tamping things down. Lumber framing has become significantly more expensive, he said, which is delaying move-up buyers’ entering the market.
This also is not a market where builders construct homes on speculation, where a buyer hasn’t already been lined up, Smith said.
With how high prices are these days, spec building wouldn’t make sense, he said. So new homes are at a premium, too.
As Smith looked at current listings, he found just 15 single-family detached houses between $180,000 and $225,000.
“I don’t have a crystal ball,” Smith said, “but I don’t think homes will be flooding the market anytime soon.”
