Buyer demand for homes in Lehigh Valley continues to soar

Buyer demand continued to be the big story in the Lehigh Valley residential real estate market as early spring activity was brisk.

A report for March by the Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors, a trade association, showed that the number of homes sold fell 8% – to 538 – in Lehigh and Northampton counties over the time last year. But not because of a lack of interest among buyers. Rather, there aren’t nearly enough listings for those who are in the market.

Even rising prices and mortgage rates aren’t keeping buyers away. Because of low inventory, the median sales price in March went up 14.3% to $240,000. Days on market remained red hot, decreasing to just 24 days.

In other numbers, pending sales – a sign of future activity – were up 37.1% to 758; inventory levels shrank 55.1% to 556 units; months’ supply of inventory was down 55.6%, to 0.8 months; and the percentage of list price received went above and beyond, increasing to 100.5%.

“Existing home seller and new construction activity continue to remain below levels necessary to bring the market back into balance, pointing to a busy and competitive buyer market in the coming months,” Justin Porembo, CEO of the Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors, said in a release.

“While many homebuilders are working to increase their activity, the cost of lumber and other materials and a backlogged supply chain continue to limit new home construction and have increased costs substantially,” Tim Tepes, 2021 association president, said in the release.

Tepes is a broker and co-owner of Assist 2 Seller Buyers & Sellers Realty and heads Tepes Construction Co. Inc. “New methods of construction, including 3D-printed homes, could speed construction and reduce costs in the future, but realistically are several years away from making a measurable impact in the market.”

In the meantime, Tepes said in an interview that he’s seeing potential buyers losing out amid 10, 15, 20 other offers on the home they want.

Some bidders are even throwing extra cash and going $25,000 to $30,000 above appraised value, he said.

“I’ve never seen that before,” said Tepes, who’s been in real estate since 1990.

The association also covers Carbon County, “which continues to show a healthy amount of housing-related activity,” the release said. In March, the median sales price  in Carbon was $160,400, and months’ supply of inventory was 0.9 months. Homes are moving very quickly in the sparsely populated county, with days on market dropping from 98 days in March 2020 to 41 days in March 2021.