With the end of spring break and the Passover/Easter holidays over, the spring market is officially upon us and understanding the statistics, while not as funny as the time I accidentally tried selling a customer their own house, is something we must discuss in this column.
Only two months ago the biggest story in real estate was the meager housing stock compared to what was available the prior year. I wrote on these pages how listings in Bergen County essentially halved from a year ago and this trend still remains true today. Take Teaneck for example, and we will find that there are 54 houses for sale currently and one year ago on the same date there were 120. The first quarter of the 2021 real estate market is over and while the NJMLS hasn’t published their “official” quarterly statistics yet, our office decided to jump into the numbers and get a head start on where we are headed this year. (Based on NJMLS data available from 1/1/21 to 4/1/21 and 1/1/20 to 4/1/20).
Incredibly, in February when we went over the data, all we had was listing prices to talk about (and they were high). Now with the first quarter sales records in, the “solds” in 2021 are coming in quite strong. So much so that average list and sales prices were virtually the same. In Bergen county the average list price this quarter was $735,00 and the average sale price was $714,000, only a 3% difference. Last year during the same period those numbers were $665,000 list price and a $620,000 sale price coming in with a larger gap at 7%.
The real story though is the jump in the average price of homes sold this quarter vs. last year. In Teaneck last year, the average sales price was $454,000 and now this number has jumped to a whopping $559,000—almost a 19% increase in the average price of a home! High demand, low inventory and low interest rates have absolutely resulted in higher prices for homes in our area.
The statistics are always important to look at to gain insights into broader trends, but each seller preparing to sell their home and each buyer hoping to find their special place, still have their own unique story to tell.
Wherever you live in Bergen County (Englewood, New Milford, Bergenfield, Fort Lee, etc.) send me an email and I will happily send you your town’s unique sales numbers for the first quarter of 2021.
Nechama Polak is the Broker of Record and Owner of V and N Group LLC located at 1401 Palisade Ave, Teaneck. [email protected] 201 826 8809.
