Here is local market update for October! If you’d like to watch instead of read: Watch here!

Two market stats stood out to me this month. First, it is definitely good to see more homes coming on the market, it shows confidence in the market from both existing home sellers and builders plus it offers more options for buyers. And secondly, October had a slightly declining median sales price which means buyers could take advantage of some end of year specials, from builders and from sellers wanting to close before the end of the year.

The number of active listings continued to grow slightly in October with a handful of new listings added. With 3,309 homes on the market in October, the metro saw a 2.4% increase in available listings compared to the 3,231 homes on the market in September. Year over year, active listings increased 10.7% with 2989 homes on the market in October 2022.  

The number of home sales or homes that closed in the Des Moines metro area declined 12.1% month over month. October had 955 homes sold compared to the 1,086 homes sold in September. Year-over-year comparisons reflected a similar decline when compared to the 1,083 homes sold during the same month in 2022.

Six fewer pending sales were recorded in October, with 974 contracts written last month compared to the 980 contracts written in September. The opposite was true for yearly measures, with October seeing a 3.7% increase in written contracts compared to the 939 pending sales of October 2022.

October’s median sale price dropped from that of September, but continued to rise from last year. A median sales price in October of $274,745 represents a 5.3% decrease from September’s median sales price of $290,000. And year over year increase of 4.7% with a median sales price of $262,000 in October 2022.

Last month, homes averaged 43 days on the market, down from the 46 days homes were on the market in September, but up significantly from the 34 days on the market one year ago.