GRAY, TN – Pending homes sales make their second straight double-digit increase in February and there was a significant decrease in the time properties spend on the market before closings. Both point to increasing housing demand. 

Sellers OK’d 669 contracts – 94 more than in January and 11 fewer than last year. At the same time, the time a property was on the market decreased by a week. The Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors (NETAR) days on market lock starts when a property is listed and stops when the sale closes.  

Pending sales are a leading indicator of housing activity based on signed contracts for existing single-family homes and condominium sales in the region monitored by NETAR. Since resales go under contract 30 to 60 days before they close, pending sales offer insight into the direction home sales will take.      

   

The surge in pending sales has outnumbered new listings, so last month’s supply situation didn’t improve. The region has had less than two months of inventory on the market every month since January 2021 and that upward pressure on prices continues to buoy the region’s housing price performance.  

Although existing home sales have been pushed down by higher mortgage rates that drove mortgage payments past the affordability level for every county in NE Tenn. it’s the only housing metric that has receded to pre-pandemic levels. Active inventory would need to more than double February’s level to be at a pre-pandemic level.  

The largest number of last month’s pending sales were in the $300,000 to $400,000 price range, which is also the price range for the largest number of new listings.  

The median listing price has increased every month since Dec. 2019. Last month it was $306,955 while the median sales price was $240,000. Sellers came down on the asking price to lock in 56 percent of last month’s sales. The average discount was $17,954. 

The typical home that closed in January was on the market for 53 days, down from 59 days in January. When the time a property is on the market decreases it a sign demand increased.