Winston-Salem Area Real Estate Market Results (Triad MLS) for December 2023

I am going to talk about the real estate market results for the triad MLS for December 2023. The triad MLS is basically Winston Salem - above and below; Greensboro - above and below. And the counties going west - Davie, Yadkin, Surry, Wilkes. It's a ten-county area.

The thing that stuck out is that, well, there's really nothing new. Closings were lower than the previous year for December, and this has been the case for, I think, about 23 months in a row now. With closings being consistently that low - - lower than the previous year for that many months in row, you would think that would indicate that it's a slow market … people aren't buying - - that's why closings are low. And maybe it favors buyers.

But if you know anything, the market does not favor buyers.

Inventory is so low - - there is only 1.9 months supply of inventory. In a balanced market, that would be five or six. So instead of 3300 homes, in a normal buyer's market, we would have around 8500, give or take.

The median days on market, that is pretty low at 16. It is seasonable. I would suspect that when we get back to this summer, it's going to be around eight or so … a little over a week.

So to put this all in perspective, let's look at the long-term trend. There were only a little over 1400 closings, 3000 homes on the market, two months supply of inventory, and a little over two weeks for the medium days on market. The last time that we were balanced …month supply of inventory needs to be between five and six … was between 2015 and 2016.

We had almost 9000 homes on the market in 2015. The median days on market was closer to two months instead of two weeks. And so what you could see here and look at the average price per square foot it was 86. And see how it gradually goes up year after year.

And at the same time, inventory is going down, down, down. The median days on market also dropped steadily.

So closings are low, but they are low because there's just not that much for sale. What is being offered on the market is going off really quickly. So I'm going to say that the takeaway from that is that we are not really in danger of a market crash anytime soon with inventory that low.

If we get back toward a buyer's market, it's going to be a gradual thing. There's very unlikely that there will be a market crash in the near future. And as far as that market outlook for 2024, with interest rates going down, we should see the market start heating up again.

Expect to see prices going up and the days on market going down and the market becoming more and more competitive.