Wichita Real Estate Market Report – 08 through 14 April 2018

Purpose of the Wichita Area Real Estate Market Report - The purpose of this report is to provide home buyers and sellers the information necessary to make informed decisions when making the large financial decision that is buying or selling a home. I hope the residents of Wichita, Kansas and the surrounding area will find the information valuable and I welcome any questions or comments.

Housing Inventory Movement: The housing inventory movement metrics describe the current availability of and recent buyer activity. These metrics can also help to predict future market conditions. It is important for both homebuyers and sellers to understand the supply and demand for their market in order to make informed decisions.

Analysis of Housing Inventory Movement: A little positive news for homebuyers entering the market Wichita Real Estate market, the median days on market actually increased this past week to 14 days from two weeks ago with a low of 11 days. There continues to be both buyers and sellers entering the market every day as the main selling season comes into full swing; hopefully, for home buyers, the trend remains consistent with no more dropping in median days on market.

The Wichita Real Estate market is still strongly a sellers’ market with only 2.25 months inventory available. The top 1/3 of homes are still selling extremely fast; this previous week within 5 days. It is very important for buyers to understand if they are interested in a desirable home they cannot wait to see a home on the weekend because it could be under contract by the time the weekend arrives. As expected, new home sales for the previous week were an outlier at 11.58%; this week they again dropped well below the national average of 10% (as reported by the National Association of Home Builders) down to 5.47%. There will need to be significant construction in new housing to provide any relief in the housing shortages in the Wichita area; especially as more and more millennials become homebuyers, with them being 36% of buyers last year (as reported by the National Association of Realtors).

Housing Inventory Pricing: The housing inventory pricing metrics describe the current trends for listing vs selling price, as well as the changes in current values when compared to the previous year. Net sold price is the price a home sells for after accounting for seller credits, this is used instead of sold price because this is a better indicator of market value. These metrics are important for home buyers and sellers to understand so they understand how home pricing affects offers and sale prices.

Housing Inventory Pricing Analysis: Interestingly, this past week the average net sold to list ratio dropped slightly to under 96%, but it seems that is entirely due to home sold over the median days on market (19 days). The average home sold over 19 days sold for 4.09% less on a percentage basis than a home sold in less than 19 days. 4.09% of the average sales price results in a net loss of about $6,850; which is about $900 difference since the week before. Competition for the top half of homes remains fairly constant, those homes listed above their market value are taking significant price cuts.

Appreciation remains constant at this time with home prices rising just over 10% for sales in the area since this time last year.

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*Note: The above metrics were compiled using data provided by the Realtors of South Central Kansas Multiple Listing Service. The data was aggregated from homes listed using the MLS within 30 miles of Wichita (see map below). The data was collected by the author (local Wichita Real Estate Agent - Jared Viernes) on the date the blog post was published. There are many submarkets within Wichita and the surrounding area which may be very different from the averages/medians discussed here. This is meant as an analysis of the overall Wichita area real estate market, not a specific neighborhood.