Area home sales hit record high in June (Savannah, Wilmington Island: 2015, mortgage)

[Airforceguy]

The Savannah housing market is booming right now. This past June set an all time record with $175 million in sales. I have a feeling the numbers will be even larger for July.

“May, June and July are always our peak months,” said Trey Niver, president of the Savannah Area Realtors, a local industry group.

“This June was our all time best.”

Nationally, The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that sales of existing homes rose 1.1 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million, the best performance since February 2007. Buyers are quickly making offers amid tight supplies of homes on the market, boosting prices as the traditional buying season reached its crescendo. The solid job market and mortgage rates near historic lows have kept demand steady, even though the number of listings on the market has dropped.

Year over year in the local area, there has been a steady increase in June with 39 more homes sold this year compared to the 678 homes during the same period last year, an increase of 5.8 percent.

With the exception of January, which is typically a slow month for home sales, 2016 monthly unit sales have exceeded 2015 monthly numbers.

Niver said price per square foot for area homes has also leveled back to pre-recession prices. Last month the average was $123 compared to $120 in 2007 and $104 during June 2011.

Inventory has also balanced out this year coming in at about 5 months in June, down slightly from five and a half months in May and nine months in January. Five to six months of inventory is ideal for the housing market. Generally anything below five months and rate of appreciation begins to increase.

Home buyers are still flocking to Richmond Hill, which ranked first in unit and volume sales in June with 95 units sold for a total of $25,258,124. The area has consistently ranked in the top five zip codes for units sold each month this year. Rounding out the top five in unit sales were Georgetown, Pooler, Wilmington Island and midtown Savannah.

Area home sales hit record high in June | BiS | Business in Savannah News