2022 is in the rear-view mirror, and you're looking ahead at your future. It helps to get a sense of what happened in the real estate market last year, and where we stand now in January 2023, with a full year ahead of us.
Because new home prices took a steep incline from March to June 2021 and stayed there, we came into 2022 with higher prices than we are historically used to seeing in the Palmer-Wasilla area.
The year started with an average median list price of $550,000, stayed pretty steady, and ended at $543,000. A big difference compared to 2021, when the median list price started at $394,000 and ended at $550,000. We never saw an average days-on-market lower than 58 days back in July, although homes were flying off the market in multiple offer situations all summer.
Higher-end homes sat on the market longer through the summer and are now (as of Jan 2023) selling more slowly than the homes in the bottom 25% of the market and faster than the homes in the 25%-50% range.
If you are buying a starter home in Palmer now (as of Jan 2023) you can expect to pay around $380,000 for it. If you are selling one, expect it still to take about 3 months to sell on average. Price per square foot enjoyed a high of $270 in the height of summer 2022 and has settled at $250 for the winter, staying higher than the entire year of 2021. For instance, 2021 started at $200 and steadily rose to $242 per square foot by the end of the year.
Inventory has also taken a big swing in 2022. We started the year with 41 homes on the market, got as low as 30 at the beginning of March and then rose to a high of 108 in July and August. It has drawn back down as of this writing to 57. 2021 saw a wave of inventory like that as well, but nowhere near as drastic. Specifically in 2021, inventory never went lower than 35 and nor higher than 82. However, there have been changes to interest rates this year that can account for a change in buyer behavior, which affects demand.
With all of these more exaggerated ups and downs this year, the Market Action Index stayed pretty steadily in the 40’s and is now sitting in the mid 30’s coming out of the holidays. There were weekly spikes in both directions but overall, the Palmer market has stayed consistent with our “new normal” list prices favoring Sellers.
The market won't drop back into a range where buyers have the power until the MAI is below 30. When we see that, expect downward pressure on prices.
Until then, if you have something to sell, now’s the time!
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