Everyone knows the Outer Banks is a unique place to live and visit. Our remoteness and tourist driven economy makes our real estate market unique. The one thing that is probably most similar to suburban areas is our inventory cycle.
Like most other real estate markets in America, our inventory is at its lowest point in the winter. Scott Team Realty has been tracking the number of listings for over 20 years. Each month around the 15th of the month we’ll see how many properties are for sale in our MLS. In all but a few years during the pandemic, our lowest number of listings for the year was in January.
Sales are a different matter. In most suburban markets, the highest number of sales occurs in the summer when kids are out of school. On the Outer Banks our busiest time is the second quarter. It’s often the case that 30% to 35% of the sales for the year occur during the months of April, May and June.
Why is this? It’s likely because buyers want to get as much of that summer rental income as possible. Also, it’s difficult to see houses in the summer when vacationers are in many of the homes for sale. As a result the third quarter usually has fewer sales than all the quarters except the first quarter.
Another characteristic that is different than most markets is our days on the market. Because most buyers and sellers don’t live here, there’s less urgency to sell or buy. A buyer can wait another year and rent again this year and a seller can wait and collect another year’s worth of rental income. As a result, homes stay on the market here much longer on average than most suburban areas.
It can take time to learn this real estate market. At Scott Team Realty we’ve been helping people make good real estate decisions for over 20 years. You are welcome to contact Sandy, Maggie, Jeff or Lori-Jo for anything to do with Outer Banks real estate.
Featured Listing – https://for-sale.scottrealtyobx.com/idx/details/listing/b227/130400/939-Soundside-Court-Lot-134-Corolla