Home sales remained strong in Clark County last month, and might have been even greater had there been more homes on the market.
The latest Clark County Market Report from Mike Lamb, broker at Windermere Stellar real estate in Vancouver, tallied 661 new pending residential sales last month. That was up 33.5 percent from December, and 12.8 percent from January 2017, when winter weather may have deterred some buyers.
The report also noted that 468 residential sales closed last month, making it the best January for closed sales since 2005.
Inventory of homes remains short. There were 1,508 active listings during the month, down 11.3 percent from a year earlier and 36.7 percent from January 2015.
“This was easily the fewest listings available in January since at least 1990,” Lamb wrote in the report. “As a result, based on the number of pending residential sales, and taking into account only standing inventory, there were just 1.2 months of residential inventory available.”
Put another way, there was only 1.15 new residential listings for every house sold on the Realtors Multiple Listing Service.
The shortage of available homes continued to drive prices upward. The average sale price for a home listed on the RMLS last month was $364,313, up 9.6 percent from January 2017 and 20.1 percent from two years ago.
The median residential sales price — meaning half of the homes sold for more, and half sold for less — was $345,000 last month, up 15.5 percent from the previous year.
“This upward pressure on prices will continue as long as the supply of inventory remains so low and demand remains strong,” Lamb said.
