GRAY – October was a month for small gains in the local housing market everywhere except the luxury market where pending sales doubled. New listings in the move-up market are also giving buyers additional choices in the last months of the year.

Buyers accepted 695 contracts – seven more than they did in September and nine more than this time last year.

The increase flattened the region’s overall sales pattern as it moved into the last months of the year. So far this year, single-family existing home sales mirror the 2018 pre-pandemic performance level.

Pending sales represent homes that have a signed purchase contract but have not closed. Accepted contracts typically close in a month to six weeks.

NETAR’s Pending Sales Index increased one point from the previous month. And it’s up one point from October last year. The index removes some of the noise from the monthly raw numbers and benchmarks how the market is performing against a pre-pandemic baseline. The index is a forward-looking indicator based on the 2018 annual average for signed contracts instead of closings. An index of 100 is equal to the pre-pandemic accepted contracts level. An index of over 100 is the percentage increase, below 100 is a decline.

October’s mid-month report also revised the number of closings upward. And there was a small increase in the average and median sales prices. Mid-month data typically see increases after closings filed too late for the first-of-the-month tally are added. Last month’s revision added 18 closings to the sales total and $2,200 to the median sales price. The new sales total is 640, down 13% from last year, and the new median price is $260,000, up 12% from last year.

Sellers reduced their average asking prie by $19,968 to close deals last month. The typical discount was $10,000 and the percentage of discounted sales in the five NE TN counties monitored by NETAR was 58%. It was 51% in September.

There were 205 pending sales in the affordable homes market last month. That’s four more than there were in September and nine more than last year.

The move-up market had eight more pending sales than September and 53 more than last year.

Accepted contracts in the Luxury Market doubled from last year and increased by six from September. There were 84 new pending sales in the $500K and above market. New listing in that portion of the market dropped to 847 from 901 in September. Currently there are 329 active listing in the luxury market.