Beverly-Hanks’ president, Neal Hanks, was on site at the Beehive Coffee Bar in Arden to deliver the 2016 Quarter Three Market Report. Watch the video below for his short report, or continue reading for a summation.
2016 Quarter Three Residential Activity:
Overall, our housing markets are robust. The sales pace increased by 9% when compared to the same quarter in 2015. The growth is so strong, this quarter tied Q3 2006 for the most homes sold year to date.
The small number of homes for sale in most markets, continues to drive market activity in many communities. The supply of homes for sale in Buncombe County under $600,000 remains tight, giving sellers an advantage when negotiating the terms of a sale.
Because of the strong market, the Federal Finance Housing Agency reported that Asheville MSA’s home prices appreciated 5.89% over the last 12 months. If home supply continues to shrink, we expect the sales pace to moderate due to a lack of homes to sell. The shortage will intensify competition among buyers and accelerate appreciation.
Read more about Q3 2016 residential activity.
2016 Quarter Three Commercial Activity:
Western North Carolina is an extremely attractive market for commercial investors.
CRE sales for Q3 2016 were $132,637,000 as compared to $137,152,600 for the same time period last year. There were two significant apartment transactions that accounted for almost $90 million of the $132.6 million. However, only 57 CRE properties closed in Q3 2016, versus 109 properties in Q3 2015—that’s a drop of 48%.
While the number of transactions were off significantly, it wasn’t due to a lack of interest from buyers or investors. We just currently don’t have the inventory (quantity or quality) to meet the demand. Our expectation is that we see continued redevelopment of older properties to improve our inventory shortage.
On the leasing front, the market is strong. Transactions and rents are up while vacancy is down. This past quarter, there were a total of 90 lease transactions for 268,686 square feet of space, as compared to 86 lease transactions for 260,193 square feet of space this time last year. Overall vacancy in the four-county MSA dropped from 3.9% to 2.9%.
All real estate is local. In order to make confident real estate decisions, we believe it important for you to have timely and neighborhood-specific information. For more information about your real estate market, ask your Beverly-Hanks associate or click here.