ResalesPennsylvania"s West Chester Area Home Sales And Prices Strong
Home sales and prices are strong in the five townships that make up West Chester, an area of Chester County, Pennsylvania, say local Realtors.
"The West Chester area of Chester County is made up of basically five townships: East Bradford, East Goshen, West Chester Boro, West Goshen, and Westtown," says Realtor Betty Fennelly. "Sales in these five townships have been extremely strong over the past year with an average transaction closing at approximately 97 percent of the original asking price year to date.
"One hundred sixty-five residential properties were listed in the West Chester area in since the beginning of the year and ninety-two properties were sold," continues Fennelly. "This is slightly off from the numbers we saw at the same time last year, yet the properties are selling more quickly creating a bit more of a sellers market than we were seeing at the end of last year. The number of days on the market for these homes has stabilized, at an average of 46 days, compared to 48 days in December and an average of 53 days at this same time last year. The average list price for houses in the West Chester Area was $314,790, which is the lowest it has been since June 2003. The average sold price for West Chester Area residential property in January of $332,656 is off slightly from last month but with nearly twice as many homes sold this January as compared to last January, I think we are off to a good start in 2004."
She adds, "Multi-family units in West Chester have been holding stable with an average of 52 days on the market for 2003. There were 22 properties listed and 11 units sold in 2003 with an average sales price of $292,468. One hundred twenty-three properties were listed for residential rent in West Chester during 2003, but only 56 properties were rented with an average of 61 days on the market. So far for 2004 we have seen 16 properties listed for rent with 13 properties actually rented and an average of 83 days on the market. The rental rate so far this year has been between $1315 and $2200."
Says Realtor Steve Tanzola, "Coming off one of the housing market"s best years in history in 2003, the nation"s home builders expect to stay nearly as busy next year as rock-solid market fundamentals continue to bolster demand for new homes and apartments nationwide."
He says, "Sales of new single-family homes should once again eclipse one million units next year, NAHB predicts. On the production side, starts of single-family units should recede by only about 3.5 percent to 1.45 million units. In the multi-family sector, a strong condo component and solid production of federally subsidized low-income rental housing will continue to provide essential support to the market while better job growth will help combat high vacancies in market-rate rental housing. As a result, NAHB projects a mere 1.5 percent decline in multifamily production to 342,000 units this year, followed by some further softening in 2004 to 327,000 units."
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