Let’s Talk Real Estate – May 2015

In the first quarter of 2015, the median price of a home in the city of Jacksonville increased 41.1% over the same period in 2014, with the median price of a home selling for $398,500. Jacksonville has now passed Ashland with the honor of having the highest median price of a home in Jackson County. Ashland’s median price of a home is at $329,000.

Median price can be misleading as the number can go up as the average price of a home goes up and as the mix of the properties selling goes up. In other words, if we have three homes selling in a month on Surrey Drive or Wells Fargo Drive for $1 million each, that would drive up the median price of homes sold in Jacksonville, but not necessarily affect the value of the average home in sold in Jacksonville. The good news is that this is not the case—median prices have gone up mainly from increases in the $200,000-$400,000 price level. Let’s take a closer look at the first quarter sales.

In Heritage Village, the one story complex across from the gas station, we sold a two bedroom, 984 sq. ft. townhome for $200,000, up from $150,000.

In Jacksonville Town Square, behind Ray’s, we sold a townhome for $252,000, up from $220,000.

In The Farms, across from Bigham Knoll, we sold two townhomes at $260,000 and $270,000, up from $255,000.

In Brookview, across from the elementary school, a townhome was sold for $291,000, up from the last sale of $233,000.

In Nunan Square, a home sold for $429,000 when the last sale was for $384,000.

In the older section of Coachman Estates off Stagecoach Road, we sold a home for $490,000 and the last home to sell there was $335,000.

So now it’s easy to see where the price increases are coming from. Homes between $200,000-mid $400,000 are in great demand in Jacksonville and the prices are soaring!

The highest-priced home to sell in Jacksonville so far this year is a new home in Vineyard View at $555,555 and we have yet to see buyers for higher priced homes.

Rural homes on land outside the city of Jacksonville are up 12% from the same time last year but their sales prices were higher. The majority of rural homes sold in the $400,000 price range but others sold in the $500,000, $800,000 and $900,000 range.

The majority of home sales in Jackson County are up significantly this year with a 14.7% increase of all homes resold, a 16.7% increase on all new construction and a 12% increase on all rural properties.

So hang-on as we enter our largest selling season with very little inventory of homes for sale and very many buyers worried that interest rates and prices are going up. I predict a great year for real estate in Jackson County!