Trenton, N.J. (January 29, 2019)— Prices were on the rise in 2018, outpacing closed sales and the number of homes for sale, according to end-of-year housing data recently released from New Jersey Realtors.

The median sales price for a single family home in 2018 was $315,000, a 5 percent increase over 2017. Closed sales remained steady year-over-year, showing no statistical increase or decrease with 83,152 single family homes sold in 2018. The days on the market saw a drop over 2017, moving from 72 days to 65 days in 2018, a 9.7 percent decrease. This falls in line with the current inventory situation the market is seeing, which is consistently low. There were just 29,954 single family homes for sale in December 2018, a 10.4 percent decrease over December 2017. While the winter months often see fewer homes for sale due to the season, the year-over-year decrease is a continuation of a trend that has been occurring for several years. Still, market confidence remains reasonable, with new listings for the entire market—single family homes, townhouses and condos, and adult communities—increasing 1.2 percent to 183,156 for 2018. Overall, the numbers for 2018 show consistency.

While New Jersey ranked high for the number of foreclosures in the country again for 2018, there is good news: the number of foreclosures is down 12 percent from 2017, with 18,801 foreclosures starts in 2018 and 21,274 foreclosure starts in 2017, according to ATTOM Data Solutions. Nationally, and in New Jersey, this marks a 13-year low.

Mortgage rates had been consistently on the rise since 2016, coming close to 5 percent, likely due to the four Federal Reserve hikes in 2018. This caused buyer confidence to slow, but the rates have since adjusted lower, with the most recent average 30-year-rate at 4.45 percent, according to Freddie Mac.

“We cautiously forecast prices will continue to rise for 2019 by a few percentage points at most,” said 2019 New Jersey Realtors President Ilene Horowitz. “But, as always, all markets are local so what we’re seeing in North Jersey for first-time buyers is not necessarily indicative of what’s happening in other areas throughout the state with different buyers and sellers. The best place for specific market knowledge is your local Realtor.”

For more information and the full reports, visit njrealtor.com/data.

New Jersey Realtors is the voice of real estate for New Jersey. It is a non-profit organization serving the professional needs of nearly 55,000 Realtor and Realtor-Associate members engaged in all facets of the real estate business. In addition to serving the professional needs of its members, NJ Realtors is dedicated to enhancing the ability of its members to conduct their business successfully while maintaining the preservation of private property rights. Realtor is a registered collective membership mark, which may be used only by real estate professionals who subscribe to the Realtor organization’s strict Code of Ethics and are members of the national, state and local Realtor organizations. For more information, visit njrealtor.com.

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