Realtors® from the Lexington-Bluegrass Association of Realtors® (Bluegrass REALTORS®) joined other local associations from across the nation for a Ring Day, an annual event where real estate professionals volunteer at as many Salvation Army red kettles as possible in their local communities.
Properties listed for sale in Central and Southeastern Kentucky have experienced an increase in showings over the past two months. Appointments to view listings have seen a 10% and 7% uptick in September and October, respectively. This follows three months of decreases after back-to-back all-time highs for showings in April and May.
After a small blip in July, real estate sales over the past two months have lunged forward and reached all-time highs in both August and September. Some of the increase is due to the addition of newly reported sales in the counties surrounding Lake Cumberland, however, sales across the board remain strong. Transactions in September pushed total sales to 1,494 in 2021 compared to 1,384 last year, an increase of 5% year-over-year and a new record for the month.
Transactions in August reached an all-time high for the month and second highest on record thanks, in part, to an agreed merger with the local Somerset-Lake Cumberland Association. The additional listings from the four counties around the lake region pushed total sales to 1,535 in 2021 compared to 1,460 last year, an increase of 5% year-over-year. With the pandemic pushing the 2020 selling season into the fall months, a strong August this year is a promising sign for the remainder of the year.
The Realtor® Community Housing Foundation (RCHF), the charitable arm of the Lexington-Bluegrass Association of Realtors®, is hosting its inaugural charity gala on Thursday, October 7. The gala, in partnership with Lexington Habitat for Humanity and REACH (Resources, Education, and Assistance for Community Housing), will be held at Limestone Hall, inside the historic courthouse.
Home sales dropped in July for the first time since the pandemic spread across the country last spring. Transactions saw an 8% decline year-over-year with 1,459 homes sold compared to 1,583 sales last year. Even with the slowdown, sales still reached the second highest level on record for July. Single-family homes decreased 8% with 1,364 sales while townhouse/condo sales rose 2%, with 95 sales, making up just 6.5% of the total market for the month.
For the first time in eight months, and breaking the streak of record low inventory levels in as many months, the number of homes on the market in June rose when compared to the previous month. The 1,591 homes on the market represented an 8% increase over the 1,468 homes in May. Despite the rise in inventory currently, June’s 2021 total was still 49% lower than the 3,110 homes available last year and is the 26th consecutive month of year-over-year declines. June was the fifth straight month of inventory levels being under the 2,000 mark.
Real estate prices surged to another all-time high, following the previous month’s record. May's median prices marked the third straight month of record prices and hit $227,750 for the month, an increase of 18 percent over last year’s $193,000 and up 5 percent from last month’s record of $218,000. May was the 11th consecutive month of double-digit increases and the 27th straight month of overall price increases year-over-year. Single-family homes increased 19 percent to $230,000 while townhouse/condo prices jumped 18 percent to $198,865.
