The report recently released by the Iowa Association of Realtors showed that houses were on the market an average of 66 days in August — the lowest number since August of 2015.
Association president Cindy Miller of Burlington says part of the issue is a lack of houses for sale. “Yes, we are still having a little bit of a house shortage. It’s kind of making it where the prices do go up,” Miller says. The average sale price went up six percent compare to last August. Miller says the number of homes sold was about identical to last August. She says some homes are harder to find than others.
“It kind of varies…a lot of it is the price range from 99 to 150 (thousand dollars),” according to Miller. August is usually a hot month for home sales as people want to make a move before school starts. Sales traditionally slowed as the days moved further into fall — but Miller says not any more.
“Well, it used to, but now as long as things stay green…it used to be that November and December were our slow times, but is not. We haven’t seen that for quite awhile,” Miller says. She says financing is still readily available and that helps sales in Iowa.
She says interest rates are still down and Iowa continues to be very steady in home sales. The median price of homes in August was $159,000 compared to $150,000 last year at this time.