Expert Contributor by Sarah Forti Forti Homes with Keller Williams Realty
2021 Newtown Square Real Estate Recap The past 20 months have been a real estate roller coaster. In March 2020, COVID-19 put a screeching halt to what was already gearing up to be one of the best ever years in real estate sales. Record-low interest rates, rising prices due to low inventory, a strong economy, and low unemployment numbers fueled solid activity and strong market projections. When the pandemic shutdown occurred in March of 2020, the market came to a halt. What happened next was incredible to witness. While the world sat in their homes and waited to see where things would go from here, many Americans looked around and reconsidered if their current living situation worked for them. This spurred a flurry of activity as people decided they needed more space, less space, to be closer to family or to combine generations under one roof. All of that activity created an incredible surge in sales, causing extraordinary demand and the lowest inventory of homes for sale in recent history. At the same time, due to pandemicrelated material production and delivery delays related to the pandemic, the lack of available lumber halted an already slow-moving new construction industry. Entering 2021, there were still not enough homes to keep up with the demand. Home builders and flippers tightened their
margins and increased their initial investments in order to keep their work going. Their financial actions increased home prices even further. Home flippers who had been willing to pay up to $250,000 on a particular property were now willing to pay $275,000 and also take less of a profit, to keep their business and their workers moving forward. Such changes resulted in higher home values, and also increased competition among the first-time homebuyer sector. What did that mean for Newtown Square real estate? Let’s recap. In 2021, 325 homes had sold as of the time this article was written, with another 62 scheduled to close by end of year. Of those 387 homes sold, 9% were new construction. For the resale properties, the median Days on Market was only 7, and the median home sold for 100% of the asking price, while 116 of the 325 home sales sold for OVER the asking price. The highest sale price was $5 million and the lowest price was $105,000. There are several commercial and residential new construction development projects underway in Newtown Square, creating even more reasons for people to choose our wonderful Newtown Square as their place to call home. If you are interested in learning more about property and land development projects in our area, you can read the Planning Commission meeting minutes on the Newtown township website. NS
Wishing you and yours a happy and healthy holiday season and a Happy New Year! Forti
Sarah Forti Realtor
Homes
®
www.FortiHomes.com
I
Sarah@FortiHomes.com
I
610-647-8300
744 W. Lancaster Avenue, Suite 125, Wayne, PA 26
Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors
December 2021
