Comparing April of 2023 to April of 2022

As in past newsletters, I look at single family homes and condos together and make comparisons year-over-year in both Chittenden and Franklin counties. There are too few sales in a single month in Grand Isle County to predict trends or evaluate the market with accuracy. I am comparing April of 2023 to April of 2022 using statistics from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).

This month, there were some interesting stats in Chittenden County. In April of 2022, 123 homes sold compared to 105 in 2023 for a drop in number of sales of nearly 15%. And it makes sense because in 2022, 185 homes were listed compared to 135 in 2023 for a drop of 27% in number of listings! It’s no wonder fewer homes sold. This also is a reason why we saw a buyer feeding frenzy since there were so few homes to bid on. 

The median sales price rose 4.4% from April 2022, where we saw a median price of $455,000 compared to a median price of $475,000 in 2023. Last year, sellers received on average 106.41% of their asking price compared to 101.97% this year. I think sellers priced their homes a little more accurately this year, but still enjoyed a premium of nearly 2% over asking. A very interesting statistic is the median number of days a home was on the market before a seller accepted an offer – five days for both years. It’s no wonder buyers are frustrated and disappointed with homes flying off the market so quickly! 

In Franklin County, 69 homes were listed in 2022 and 52 in 2023. It may not seem like a big difference, but percentage-wise that’s a decrease of 24%. In 2022, 39 homes sold and in 2023, 35 sold. Here’s something very interesting – the median price dropped from $341,000 in 2022 to $305,000 in 2023 for a decrease of 10.5%. 

There are often reasons for a drop like this: in analyzing the sales in Franklin County, of 35 sales, 17 sold for $300,000 and below, almost half. One sale was a $70,000 house that was on the market for 695 days. This and other lower priced sales account for the drop in the median sales price, in my opinion. 

Sellers received almost 4% over asking in 2022 and a little less than 1% over asking in 2023. Again, I believe sellers are pricing their homes more accurately this year. The median number of days on the market until sellers accepted an offer was five in 2022 and eight in 2023. Percentage-wise that seems like a lot, but in reality, eight days until an accepted offer is not much time.

We continue to be surprised that with the higher interest rates of late, buyers are still buying and sellers are still receiving multiple offers. On the other hand, many buyers must buy if they have a job offer or a growing family, so there is a bit of desperation on the part of buyers. I think when the interest rates decrease, more sellers will put their homes on the market and the market might become a little more “normal.” Right now, it’s difficult for sellers who have a mortgage rate under 3% to trade for a new home with over 6% interest.