TurpinRealtors.com/Reports
This report represents our first year-over-year comparison of two “post-lockdown” quarters and I am pleased to advise that the real estate market in north central New Jersey remains brisk, even as it settles into a more measured pace. While county-level data illustrates a cooling market as compared to the same period last year, overall sales volume remains historically high and continues to exceed pre-pandemic averages. Individual towns exhibited a range of outcomes in the third quarter, as usual.
Home sales under $1 million generally constitute the most robust segment of our market, however, they continue to be constrained by exceedingly tight supply. Indeed, of the towns we studied, 69% had a supply of only one or two months at the end of the third quarter, while another 13% had less than one month supply; we consider six months supply to be balanced. By comparison, at the end of pre-pandemic 2019, the vast majority of towns in our study (72%) had more than two months supply and 17% had more than six months supply. This shortage of supply is a major factor behind declines in transaction volume.
In keeping with recent trends, the $1-2 million market segment continues to show tremendous growth. Year-to-date home sales increased more than 100% over 2020 in 16 of the 39 towns in this report, and in Bridgewater, Long Hill, Mendham Borough and Peapack-Gladstone, sales were up 200% or more. Madison, Maplewood, Chatham Borough, Morris Township, Mountain Lakes, Summit, and Westfield all reported less than one month supply, a stat that would have been hard to imagine for this price range a few years ago.
Improvements have begun to take hold in the upper end as well, with an increase in sales of homes priced over $2 million in Bedminster, Bernards Township, Bernardsville, Chatham Borough, Far Hills, Madison, Summit, and Westfield. Of particular note in this segment are Harding Township (16 homes sold year-to-date, versus 8 in 2020) and Mendham Township (8 homes sold year-to-date, versus none in 2020), while the Chathams kept pace (24 this year versus 17 in 2020).
Across the board, the north central New Jersey real estate market continues to look bright. Declines noted are largely due to inventory shortages and nevertheless still outpace pre-pandemic averages. I invite you to call upon one of our talented Realtors to help you assess the particulars of your own real estate needs. It would be our pleasure to assist with anything from sending neighborhood activity reports to your inbox to meeting for a personalized consultation or market analysis.
See the data → https://bit.ly/3BXFJ53