Consumer demand for housing in 2021 kept the Lubbock market sizzling
The second year of a global pandemic, record low housing inventory, building supply and labor shortages that challenged home builders, and rising home prices could not prevent the Lubbock real estate market from turning 2021 into a record year. Single-family home sales surpassed 2020’s record number by more than 11 percent, and total dollar volume soared almost 24 percent to a record $1.3 billion.
Lubbock’s pandemic-resistant real estate market goes back to 2020, the Lubbock Association of Realtors (LAR) leadership worked with local elected officials to ensure real estate was labeled an essential service. This enabled Realtors to continue to help would-be homebuyers take advantage of historically low mortgage interest rates. Realtors used virtual technology that made it possible for consumers to attend open houses and property showings remotely, and remains an important part of the real estate industry.
Home sales were essentially static in December 2021 and December 2020, with 407 The median sales price was almost 12 percent higher though, closing at $226,000 compared to $202,500 in December 2020. Median price is the best indicator of how much buyers are willing to pay for homes. The average sales price closed at $253,851, a 7 percent increase from December 2020.
Record sales were even more surprising consider the stark lack of housing inventory. Months inventory had hovered around a month for quite some time but ended 2021 at less and 1 month. Active listings, the total number of properties available, fell 21 percent in December 2021, with just 403 homes on the market. For perspective, housing inventory across the U.S. currently stands at a 2.1-months supply, according to the latest National Association of Realtors (NAR) report. Six months of inventory is considered a balanced market.
Homes spent just 25 days on the market on average, 11 days less than December 2020. It took 34 days to close, which was unchanged from the previous year, for a total of 59 days from contract-to-closing, which was also 11 days less than December 2020.
