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Are Montclair Home Sellers Staying on the Sidelines?

Local home buyers were limited in options to start the year.

The 2020 Montclair real estate year kicked off with few choices for buyers. Are Montclair home sellers staying on the sidelines? There were only 81 active listings this past January, which is the lowest number in ten years. Only 25 new listings came on the market last month, versus 39 new listings that came on the market in January of last year.

Properties in the popular $500k-$800k range of the market sold well with 21 homes going under contract in January. There are a lot of potential new listings among empty nesters, but they are slow to come to market as sellers begin the daunting task of downsizing, prepping their homes for sale, and finding their next homes.

However, around here, home sellers don’t have to go it alone; we have home selling resources to help along the way.

Even with limited real estate listings for sale, there is activity in the local market. Our open houses have been busy since the beginning of the year, so we know the buyers are there.

Among the 17 closings in December, average sales price exceeded ask by 1%, but trailed the original ask by 3%, indicating that it took some price reductions to motivate late fall/winter sales.

Regardless of home sellers staying on the sidelines at the moment, buyers can take comfort in the fact that new listing activity consistently builds to a peak in late April/early May.

Will the market open up? Is there anything that could help you in this market this season?

Contact me for answers and insights on your situation.

Rich Stanton
CEO & Principle Broker