Detached Sales Jump 47% in September as Prices Slip Further

Detached sales bounced 47.5% year-over-year in September. The large increase comes off weak base effects, as September 2018 was the slowest year for detached home sales in over two decades. When we extrapolate further out, we can see that detached house sales this year were still 19% below the ten year average. In essence, sales volumes are finally increasing after several years of sellers trying to hold out. Most seller needs to go through the psychological and emotional process of trying their initial listing price, before eventually reducing their price. This sometimes takes a year or two and requires changing Realtors multiple times before coming to the unfortunate conclusion that their house is worth as much as they had hoped. As we can see, sellers are taking lower prices with the MLS benchmark price of a detached home dropping 8.6% year-over-year.