Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season.

Now, it’s time to look back and reflect on the past year in the real estate market.  Here, I am looking at the towns most desired by my clients – Clark, Cranford, Fanwood, Maplewood, Scotch Plains, South Orange, and Westfield.

2015 was a very active year! Overall, Average Sale Prices were up year over year from 2014, and Average Days on Market was down. Average Sale Price to Original List Price held steady year over year.

What does all that mean? It means that in most areas, homes are selling faster and for higher prices than in the previous year.  Some areas saw many homes go into multiple offers, with some homes fetching as many as 7 bids from eager buyers! For sure, it was a “seller’s market” and with demand often outstripping supply, many homes were snapped up quickly in multiple offer situations.

Our buyer pool continues to expand, with many buyers coming to our area from Hoboken, Jersey City, Manhattan, and Brooklyn.  Our area’s easy access to public transit to NYC (trains and buses), vibrant downtowns, excellent school systems, and more continues to make our area a top choice for many.  At the same time, many in our area who first purchased “starter” homes five to ten years ago are now starting to upsize to larger homes for their growing families, making competition even more fierce.

So how does that all shake out by town?

For each town below, I have created a report that shows all the closed sales in 2015 according to the Garden State Multiple Listing Service.  I have included a link to the town report for your convenience.  Happy Reading!

Clark

Click here for 2015 Clark Closed Sales Report

Cranford

Click here for Cranford 2015 Closed Sales Report

Fanwood

Click here for Fanwood 2015 Closed Sales Report

Maplewood

Click here for Maplewood 2015 Closed Sales Report

Scotch Plains

Click here for Scotch Plains 2015 Closed Sales Report

South Orange

Click here for South Orange 2015 Closed Sales Report

Westfield

Click here for Westfield 2015 Closed Sales Report

I hope you found all this great information useful!

If you would like a more customized report, for example by style of home, number of bedrooms, price range, let me know! You can request your customized report by clicking HERE.

If you have specific questions or would like more in-depth analysis, reach out by clicking HERE.

Outlook for 2016

The market continues to look very strong for 2016 as well. In fact, many of the ‘spring’ buyers are already looking in earnest, in anticipation of rising interest rates due to the Fed’s hike in the Federal Funds Rate, and also helped out by the mild winter we are currently experiencing.  2016 is already shaping up to be quite an active year!

If you are considering buying or selling this year, please click HERE to set up a no-pressure consultation.

Best wishes for a fantastic 2016!

Tina