• 626 homes available in the Metro counties in January
  • Median home price Metro wide was $304,000
  • Median Single Family price was $310,000
  • 20 days from listing to escrow across Metro
  • 986 new listings hit the market in January
  • 1,005 deals were inked, pending sale
  • 893 Homes closed

Holy cow inventory is tight! As I write this in late February there are 571 homes of any type available in the Albuquerque Metro area – that’s Bernalillo, Sandoval, Valencia and Torrance counties. And I’m not just talking single family homes. I’m counting SFs, townhomes, condos and manufactured homes.

 

And We Thought Inventory Was Tight Last Year

For January the count was 626 homes available on average on any given day throughout Metro. Back in January 2021 there was an average of 1,116 homes available and in January 2020, right before Covid hit, we averaged 2,086 available homes. Even then we were seeing inventory tightening.

Think about that – we’re running about a third or less homes available for buyers than we had just two years ago. Add in low interest rates, some (not all) buyers with deep pockets and improving economics and you have a recipe for some serious price hikes. This is not news to you, I’m sure.

This January the median Albuquerque Metro home price for all types of homes was $304,000, up 21% from the $250,650 January 2021 median and a whopping 39.5% jump over the January 2020 median of $217,900. For single family detached the median was $310,000, compared to $257,900 in January 2021 and $222,500 in January 2020.

The typical January sale was just a hair over ask at 100.3% of list price. That’s up a skosh from January 2021’s 99.5% list to sell ratio. January 2020s list to sell was 98%. Homes went into escrow in 20 days on average but fully half the homes went into escrow in 6 days or less. In January 2021 homes went pending in about 24 days (half in 6 days or less) and in January 2020 we ran about 44 days to contract, half going in 25 days or less.

 

How About Just Albuquerque?

 

  • 422 homes available in Albuquerque in January
  • Median Home price in Albuquerque was $290,000
  • Median Single Family price was $305,000
  • 17 days from Listing to Escrow in Albuquerque
  • 712 new Albuquerque listings to market in January
  • 635 deals inked in Albuquerque
  • 610 homes closed in Albuquerque

If we look just at Albuquerque proper there are 276 homes available as I write this in late February. In an historically normal February we’d have about 1,600 homes available in Albuquerque and roughly 2,500 in the Metro area.

January averaged 422 homes available in Albuquerque on any given day. In January 2021 we would have about 600 homes available on most days and in January 2020 we would be picking through about 1,200 homes. And again, way back as we started 2020 we were remarking on the tight inventory.

 

Prices Up 33% in Two Years

In our little town of Albuquerque the median home price was $290,000 in January for all types of homes. The median in January 2021 was $246,000 and in January 2020 we had a median of $218,000. So This year we’re up 17.9% over 2021 and a snappy 33% over January 2020. The median price of a single family detached home was $305,000 in January compared to $255,000 in 2021 and $225,000 on 2020.

Homes in Albuquerque sold right at list price, the list to sell at 100%. That’s unchanged from January 20921 and up from the 98.7% list to sell in January 2020. Homes went pending in 17 days on average with half the homes going pending in 5 days or less. In January 2021 that was 24 days on average with half going pending in 6 days. In 2020 it was 42 days to pending, half in less than 21 days.

 

Great Time to Sell?

That’s pretty remarkable. You’ve been reading about low inventory for a while and it’s a country-wide phenomenon. There a few factors involved and not total agreement on all of them. But there’s no question the low number of homes is what’s fueling sharply rising prices.

It’s as much a seller’s market as we’ve seen in decades, maybe ever. If you are a buyer it’s a brutal market to be hunting homes in. If you are a seller, well you’re pretty happy on the listing side of course. Problem is, most sellers are also buyers so any gains they make on the sell side are quickly lost on the buy.

Now January and February are generally the cruelest months for home searching with inventories generally as tight as you’ll see for the year. I have no reason to think that won’t be true in 2022 and I expect we’ll see more homes come available and more choices as we progress to summer.

– Joe LaMastra, RealABQ Real Estate, February 25, 2022