For the Lehigh Valley housing market, inventory continues to drop as housing prices rise to record highs.
Home prices keep rising in the Lehigh Valley as inventory takes a sharp decline. – (Submitted)
The Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors reported that new listings decreased 10.3 percent in July to 1,074 as compared to July 2018.
Over the same period, pending sales were up 7.8 percent to 899 while inventory levels shrank 17.8 percent to 1,757 units. In addition, the average sales price increased 6.4 percent from $232,650 to $247,526.
The median sales price increased 5.7 percent to $222,000, toppling June’s $216,500, which had been the highest ever recorded by GLVR.
“The sellers are feeling good,” said Carl Billera, president of GLVR.
Homes for sale in July spent an average of 27 days on the market, down 6.9 percent from the same month last year.
Meanwhile, the months’ supply of inventory was down 16.7 percent to 2.5 months.
The falling supply of homes for sale is driving up prices, Billera said.
Low mortgage interest rates have helped keep homes affordable, he said. But, he added: “If the prices keep going up, it’s going to have an effect at some point.”
Interest rates, however, may be moving down.
In July, The Federal Reserve reduced the benchmark interest rate by a quarter point to about 2.25 percent, marking the first reduction in more than a decade, the report said.
