The #1 question I'm asked is, "How is the Market?"

For the last couple of years we've had high demand and homes have been "flying off the shelves". But recently, interest rates have increased, there's been some volatility in the stock market, and it would make sense that the real estate market would be affected.

In this video, I'm going to share with you how the Greater Des Moines real estate market is actually doing.

Beware - it's numbers heavy. I apologize in advance!

But I believe we should look at the facts - and not just consider feelings. (I tell this to my clients all the time!!) We'll look at the overall market and several areas of town that my team works.

This market update will include properties that sold (aka closed) in June, went under contract (aka pending) in June, and are currently active (aka for sale) on the mls.

Overall, we're still in a strong seller's market. But... we might be seeing some relief for buyers!

What do you think - would you like to see this kind of video each month to get a fact check on the market activity?

If you'd like to meet with me, or someone on my team, we'd love the opportunity to chat!

Video Transcript

If you've been in the market to buy or sell real estate in the greater Des Moines area in 2022, you may have wondered at some point, how long is this market going to last? How long is this buyer frenzy going to last? Some of you may hope it lasts for a long time. And others of you may be hoping that it dies if very quick death.

And so I am going to give you a lot of information in this video. This is like a market update type of video. And I think the answer to how long is this buyer frenzy going to last is possibly going to surprise you because my prediction is that it's not over yet. So this video is going to be a little numbers heavy, and I don't know how to give you an update on sales without being numbers heavy.

So I apologize in advance when we're looking at the market overall. So everything for sale in the greater Des Moines market that is single family houses, it is all neighborhoods of the Metro area. It's an awful lot of information that may or may not pertain specifically to you and your neighborhood and where you live. But overall in June, there were 1,683 sold homes.

And so that is homes that have actually closed. So they have made it from being for sale to going under contract, and now they are sold and they're owned by somebody else. But those closings happened in the month of June. The average sold price for all of those homes is $304,826. That's pretty good, and it took 22 days on average for all of those homes to sell.

Of course, we know that some probably took zero days to sell and probably took hundreds of days to sell. Now one number I didn't really look at, but I can guess what it would be is the amount of time that it took to get from going under contract to closing. So if it closed in June, it probably went under contract in may or possibly even April.

So it probably took about 45 days 30 to 45 days, maybe 60 days to get to closing in June. And that's important because we're comparing information today with information that's like six weeks old. So market-wide the number of homes that went under contract. So they're not quite sold. They're not closed, but they're considered sold because they're under contract. So that was 1,388 homes went under contract in June.

The average sales price for the pending sales in June was $297,229, which is about the same as the sold properties, which was the 304,000. So not a big difference in price change there. And the average days on market for those homes that went under contract 20. So they actually sold faster on average in June than they did in April and may when they went under contract to close in June.

But all of this is sort of like history who really cares because it's already under contract, it's already sold, but pending sales and sold statistics are kind of history, right? Like what is happening right now in July in the greater Des Moines area? So there are currently 2,371 homes for sale. Market-wide new construction, old construction, million dollar homes, condos,

everything, 2,371 homes for sale. The average price for all of those listings is right around $398,000. We'll see what the average sales price is for July next month. Interestingly, the average days on market is pretty high in comparison to the 20 and 22 days that we saw for the pending and the sold homes. So it's coming in hot at 77 days on market for active on the market for sale properties.

But that number is kind of loaded because your million dollar plus listings have a tendency to stay on the market a lot longer than your $150,000 houses. You also have new construction that has a tendency to have inflated days on market because their listings they're promoting these properties before they're even built. So that counts against the days on market. So I don't put a whole lot of stock in the overall days on market number for the entire market.

But if you do now, you know, it's 77 days a really important number here, because remember the question at the beginning of this video was how long is the buyer frenzy going to last? And the truth is I know Nostradamus, no one is, nobody actually knows. What I can tell you is that right now we have about two months of inventory based on current pending sales.

So if you take the houses that are under contract right now, which that was 1,388 properties under contract, and you divide that by the number of active properties, then that should tell you how many months of inventory that you have. And that equates to two months, two months is still a buyer's market. When it gets to be about six months of inventory,

that's when we're in a balanced market and it might shift to be a seller's market. So right now, inventory is still not great. It's still kind of low it's. The demand is obviously there, we are still seeing multiple offers on listings, maybe not six offers or eight offers, but we're still seeing two and three offers on each listing. So all of those signs would indicate that it's going to take a lot more inventory, more houses to be on the market for sale and, or a lot fewer buyers in the marketplace. And of course any of these things can happen at any given point in time. So that's why it's actually very difficult to predict what is truly going to happen in the real estate market. But what these numbers are indicating is that right now, the frenzy is probably still going to continue.

We know from years of experience, that home sales typically slow down a little bit in the summer, at least they do for our team. And maybe that's because we're having maybe that's because we work summer hours. I don't know. We don't really work summer hours, but you know, there's a lot going on in town in June and July Cod, the state fair is coming up right around the corner.

People are busy and they're distracted. They're enjoying the beautiful weather being outside after two years of not being able to do anything fun. People are at 80, 35. They're at all of the festivals and Kenny Summerfest every weekend for the rest of the summer, there's going to be some sort of festival somewhere. And I guarantee you that those places are very, very busy and the people who are there are not thinking about buying or selling real estate.

I mean, they might be thinking about it about doing it later after the party. And that's what happens every summer. I call it the summer slowdown and that's okay. So those numbers were for the entire market wide, like a very good portion of central Iowa. So what do the numbers look like in smaller markets within the Des Moines area? So let's talk about that.

Beaverdale. For example, there were 110 homes that were sold last month in Beaverdale that closed in June 11 days on market. Beaverdale is hot out of the seven markets that I collected information for Beaverdale is the fastest moving market. And that makes sense because it is also the less expensive market. And so the pool of buyers for Beaverdale is going to be bigger than most of the other markets, because the prices are more affordable. Yay, Beaverdale. So they're coming in with a $212,000 average sales price on their sold listings. There were 98 pending sales in June $220,000 as the average price. So that's higher than the sold price. So that's trending up with 13 days on market for the pending sales. And that 13 days on market is still the fastest moving market of this seven markets that I tracked second to west Moines,

Beaverdale has 89 homes on market. And I should also clarify when I say Beaverdale, I mean the 5 0 3 1 oh zip code or Des Moines Northwest, which is essentially the<inaudible> zip code has 89 homes for sale with an average for sale price, $208,000. So that's actually lower than the pending sales price and the sold price. The average active days on market is 36 days.

We'll see what the soul days on market is next month. And there is currently one month of active inventory based on the pending sales and the properties currently for sale. So then you have de Moines west, which would be anything west of downtown, but not Beaverdale cause Beaverdale is Northwest. So Des Moines west, which would be south of grand, north of grand Westwood, lots of other little neighborhoods that as I'm recording this video, I realize I'm not prepared to list them off, but Des Moines, west west of downtown up to 63rd street, there were 57 closings last month with an average sales price of $291,000. And their average days on market were 14 days. That's pretty fast market in June. They had 36 properties go under contract with an average price of $265,000 homes that are currently for sale have been on the market for an average of 47 days.

And there is two months of active inventory on the market based on current pending sales. Now Des Moines west has 54 houses currently on market with an average list price of 543,000 homes that are currently for sale have been on the market for an average of 47 days. And there is two months of active inventory on the market. Based on current pending sales, we move on to the suburbs, we'll start with Ankney. There were 189 closed sales in Akeny in June and actually of the seven markets that I tracked. Anthony had the most sales, their sales price on average was $338,000. And the time on market for those properties were 22 days. They also had 154 sales go under contract, which again, exceeds all of the other communities that I tracked.

So Anthony is a pretty hot suburb, had 154 properties go under contract last month with an average sales price of 355,000. And on average, it took 25 days for those properties to sell and can he has a lot of new construction. So it makes sense that their average time on market is a little bit higher because of those properties are influencing that number and of the seven communities.

Ankney also has the most active listings currently for sale coming in at 284 with an average list price of $405,000 and a pretty high on market timeframe of 74 days. Hello, new construction. And that is two months of inventory. So there's still only two months if we didn't put any more houses on the market between now and what would that be? September?

Oh my God, September is only two months away. Wow. If we didn't put any properties on the market between now and September, then all of the houses in theory would sell out. So then we've got Urbandale, which is really similar 96 sold homes, an average sales price of $408,000. And they sold in 27 days. There's 82 properties under contract in Urbandale $366,000 is their average price.

And it took an average of 26 days for those homes to sell. There are 129 properties on the market actively for sale in Urbandale for an average list price at $435,000. And they've been on the market for 88 days on average, but still only two months of inventory, then you have west Des Moines, which is, has always been a very popular community for people to live in 138 sales.

Last month. The average sales price was $324,000 and they sold on average in 16 days, Westmoreland had 114 properties go under contract for an average sales price of $369,000 in an average of 15 days, which was the second fast moving market in June next to Beaverdale west Des Moines is the third highest active listing market of the seven that I tracked with 150 properties on the market.

Currently for sale. Those active listings have an average list price at $443,000. They've been on the market for 72 days and there are some new construction in Western wine. So that probably has a little bit to do with it. If we were to drill down on the numbers and only one month of inventory, I suppose if we added a decimal, it'd be like 1.3 months of inventory, but since we're rounding to the whole number one month of inventory. So the interesting community here is Waukee, which came in with 104 closings last month with an average sales price of $388,000. And those properties sold in an average of 48 days. Now they have 62 currently under contract, or that went under contract in June for an average pending price of $399,000.

And 49 days on market is the average length of time it took to go under contract. Okay. So here's where it gets. Interesting. Waukee has 201 listings currently on the market for an average price of $478,000. And they also have the highest days on market at 111. So that's probably a lot of new construction and maybe they've got some really expensive properties thrown that number off,

but that is significantly higher than, than the other communities that we've talked about. So 111 days on market, but their pending sales were pretty low. They only had 62 and over 200 on market. They're looking at three months of active inventory. So that is, that is the only market on my spreadsheet that is higher than two months of inventory. Interesting.

Right. And finally, we have Grimes who, you know, a little bit smaller sales community, where they had 49 sold homes last month at an average sales price of $340,000. And those properties sold in an average of 18 days, they've got 58 properties currently under contract in June for an average sales price of $388,000. And those went under contract in 22 days on average, and then they have 56 homes currently for sale. And their Grimes has a lot of new construction as well. So their average list price is $472,000. 79 days on market is the average length of time that those active listings have been for sale currently. And Grimes is looking at one month of active inventory. So while it is not a big selling suburb like Anthony or walkie or Western Moines, it still has very low inventory for what's available. And what's what the demand is. That's out there. I like to look at trends to see, like, can we tell, is the price still going up? Is it going down what is happening? And I think it's really hard to compare active homes for sale, to pending homes for sale. And of course,

with the pending homes for sale, we don't actually know what they sold for until the property closes and it becomes public information. So honestly, I think next month's market update report will be much more interesting than this one because we'll be able to see some trends from June to July in actual sales data. So comparing time on market, you know, obviously the active properties we're looking at 77 days on average for listings that are currently on the market versus 20 that are under contract in 22 that have sold.

I don't really think that means anything. I think we're going to have to look at sold versus sold the pending days on market versus sold days on market is pretty close, but that active days on market, there's some that aren't going to sell it all. And then there's some that might go off the market and come back on the market later. There's,

there's so many different variables that I don't know that it is anybody's valuable use of time to compare active with a sold. It is really interesting how there's just not that many months of Inventory on the market. So when you're watching, you know, your favorite news later on tonight, and they're saying, oh, the real estate market is, is that really true in Des Moines?

Perhaps not, perhaps not because we only have a couple of months of inventory out there. So when will this buyer frenzy end? I wish I knew maybe next month we'll have more clues on when we're going to get back to a normal market. So in a nutshell, what is all of this mean? If you are selling your property in the near future,

it might mean that your property will remain on the market a little bit longer than homes that sold flying off the shelves this spring. It might mean that there will be fewer buyers looking for the property. Although I believe that there are still a lot of buyers out there maybe instead of six offers two or three, just remember all it takes is one offer to go under contract though.

And if you're thinking about buying a property, well, it might mean that things are better today than they were this spring. Does that mean that you're going to run the show? Maybe not. It's still technically a sellers market. So you're going to want to be strategic about what to include in your offer and how aggressive on price to be. And we can help walk you through that in any market so that you have the ability to present the best offer in order to get the house that you want.

The market is likely making a shift, hopefully we're shifting toward a more normal market. And that just means that things don't move at work speed, which would be good for all of us. I think. So if you have any questions, comments, criticisms, hopefully no criticisms or concerns. We'll definitely leave a comment. I liked talking to the people who watch my videos.

So you can also send a message to hello@myrighthouse.com and someone on my team will get back to you. Or you can always schedule a call with me or someone on my team at the link provided within this, under this email. So hopefully this information was good for you if you hate all of the numbers. Well, I don't really know what to tell you about that because like I apologize in advance for it.

So if you love numbers and you want to see more of these, I think we should do more of these too, especially to stay on top of what is actually happening in the market since it does seem to be shifting. So that will be something to look forward to. All right, that's it. I hope you have a great week and I'll talk with you soon.