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The number of homes on the market in the Des Moines metro area decreased month over month. Active listings dropped by 61 homes, which is a 2.4% decline, compared to the 2,471 listed in March. But of course, we still have a 34.5% increase of inventory from the same time last year. 2,410 homes were listed in April versus the 1,791 listed at the same time in 2022.

Home sales, or homes that closed in April, declined slightly, about 7%, with 988 homes sold compared to the 1,070 sold in March. The decrease was more apparent year-over-year with a 25% decline in sold homes compared to the 1,331 sold in April 2022.

Pending sales grew 10% last month with 1,498 pending sales compared to the 1,354 captured in March. Year-over-year, pending sales declined 12% from the 1,704 written contracts that occurred in April last year.

April’s median sale price of $274,000 represents a modest 1% increase from last month’s median price of $269,990. The 2023 median price is a slight increase of 2.6% compared to the $266,869 median price in April 2022. Last month, homes averaged 47 days on the market, a decrease of 11 days from March, and an increase from the 32 days homes averaged on the market in April 2022.

In summary, our inventory of homes is down 2.4% from last month but up 34.5% from last year. This shows we still have a good number of homes on the market, more than last year, but that is because the market was SO robust last year that homes were receiving offers in hours or days. Our inventory is down from last month as buyer's have purchased some existing inventory causing the number to decrease, while a lot of sellers, who may have that low historical interest rate, are hesitating to sell when the interest rates are so high on what they want to buy.

Our home sales are down 7% from last month and down 25% from last year. We can definitely see how the higher interest rates are affecting our local market, with buyers not sure whether they should buy now or wait until the rates come down.

But you can see some buyers making the decision to buy now as our pending sales are up 10% from last month but down 12% from last year's robust market.

A good forecast of how active our market is by taking a look at the Days on Market. April's DOM was down 11 days from March. So, homes are selling quicker, but not as fast as last year when the DOM was 32.

And it’s always good to see our median sales price remaining steady from last month and from last year. So, the sellers who are making the decision to sell now are continuing to get good prices for their homes!