As we find ourselves in the middle of the busy fall season, it should be noted that it’s on target with annual averages.  There are currently 392 residential units on the market (includes homes, condos, townhomes, manufactured) and approximately 20% of the available homes are tied up with buyers. 

There are 85 homes in escrow, which leaves true available inventory at 307 units.  If you look closely at the homes in the process of being purchased – the median price is approximately $500k.  Of these 85 homes the average market time is 148 days on market – which is about a month shorter than the average market time to sell.  This solidifies what I have been telling clients for the last year or so – “If it’s priced well when it comes on the market it’s often sold in a matter of days.”

Inventory of available homes in the lower price ranges is shrinking rapidly – under $300k there are only 3 available homes and an additional 12 condos and townhomes.  This is a major decrease in availability over the last year – and there’s no end in sight for the upward movement of the lower end of our marketplace.  There’s a fair bit of interest in the mid range homes ($500k-$750k) with 26 homes currently tied up with buyers, 11 homes in escrow between $750k-$1M, and 4 homes over $1M.  Most of the numbers are as expected, but the suprise is the $500k-$750k range coming in much healthier than it has been for the last few years.

The wildcard in the current Sedona real estate market is the January 1st rollout of the short term vacation rentals (see a prior RRN article here).  I’m not sure of how this will play out – but there’s already an increase in the number of vacation rentals available in Sedona as of January 1!  There was also a recent article that showed that an apartment complex has posted eviction notices to tenants and were told that the complex will be rented out as short term rentals.  I’m sure that we’ll see more about this in the coming months, but a quick look at the inventory of rental homes shows that demand is very high.  I’m predicting a rise in sales in the next few months as owners prepare to rent out for both short term and long term.  Stay tuned…