The Buffalo Niagara region's steadily strengthening housing market isn't showing any signs of losing steam as the traditional winter slowdown approaches.
Prices keep rising moderately. Fewer homes are for sale. And sellers still are commanding close to their final asking price, according to new data from the Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors.
The median sale price in October rose in September to $160,055, up more than 5% from a year ago. Homes are still selling quickly — the average home is on the market for a little more than a month before it sells. And sales remain strong, although the pace continues to run slower than last year as rising prices cut into affordability and record low listings limit the choices buyers have.
The market remains tilted in favor of sellers, with only enough homes to absorb a little more than three months worth of sales. A housing market is considered to be in balance between buyers and sellers when there is a six-month supply of homes available.
Solid demand and a limited supply are steadily pushing up home prices. While prices are rising at their slowest pace in the last three years, the 5.2% increase over the past year still was the third-biggest increase since 2001.
With the number of homes for sale at a more than 20-year low, the median price of the homes that sold during October reached $160,055 — a record high for October, but less than the all-time monthly high of $171,250 set in August.
The biggest factor shaping the Buffalo Niagara housing market is the lack of homes for sale. The number of homes for sale is at its lowest level in more than 20 years.
The number of homes for sale fell by 5.4% last month — extending a nine-year decline in inventory that has left buyers with almost half as many choices as they had just four years ago. The decline could be abating, however, with new listings rising for each of the past three months, including a 3% increase in October.
With buyers scrambling for a small supply of homes and affordability diminishing as prices rise, the pace of home sales has been slowing for two years. Home sales have fallen by nearly 3% during the last 12 months, on an annualized basis, based on revised data from the real estate trade group. That's the slowest pace for home sales in four years, but activity remains comfortably above the pace from most of the last two decades.
Homes still are selling briskly in a market with inventory shrinking and low mortgage rates. The average home that sold last month was on the market for 31 days, two days less than last October, but more than three weeks faster than 2016.
Home sellers also are able to hold fairly firm to their asking price. The average home that sold last month went for a fraction less than its most recent asking price.
