The Peoria-area real estate market continues to perform at an unprecedented pace, with properties moving faster than ever.
According to the Peoria Area Association of Realtors, second-quarter home sales increased 37.5% over last year, with a record 818 closings in June alone. PAAR president Jason Catton said the region remains in an extended run of unusually high activity.
“The biggest news is that we set records for home sales in June and July of 2020, and have since exceeded the June 2020 numbers this year,” said Catton. “If you look from May of last year to June of this year, we're averaging about 620 closings a month.”
The total of 2,304 homes sold in the region during the second quarter easily outpaced the 1,676 closings registered from April through June of 2020 — despite an ongoing inventory shortage.
“The listings come on (the market), and then they come right off. Our market has never experienced this,” said Catton. “Throughout the country, other regions of the country do experience this more often. But this is the first time in my career that we've experienced this.”
PAAR’s figures showed an average sales price of $154,466 in the second quarter, an increase of nearly 5% over last year’s average for the same period. The median price across the market was $127,000.
Catton said property values are up all across the country, resulting in some people relocating — or even returning — to the Peoria market for its affordability.
“The top three states that we saw buyers come from in second quarter were Florida, Arizona, and Colorado,” he said. “People that may have moved out of central Illinois down to Florida, or maybe bought a second home in Florida, they're seeing such price increases in those markets that they're finding that this is the time to unload that property down there and move back or do something with their investment.”
Catton said the supply of homes on the market remains low, with between 900 and 1,000 properties available at any given time. He said the low inventory leads to properties moving quickly, with homes typically lasting between six and seven weeks from initial listing to accepted offer.
“That's kind of the average throughout our region, but there's other areas with low inventory where if you have less than 10 homes in a certain part of town and there's 15 buyers in that market actively looking, they go quick,” he said.
“So what we've been telling all the buyers and we’re working with is that they really need to have a pre-approval letter in hand or a proof of funds at the time that they're looking at the house, and they also need to bring all parties that are going to be responsible for making the decision for the purchase to that showing because they may not have the second opportunity to get back in that house.”
