From Mark Slade:
Hi, this is Mark Slade with Keller Williams Mid-Town Direct, servicing SOMA for all your real estate needs and one of the area’s top performing real estate teams.
In 2023 South Orange experienced yet another great year for real estate with sellers experiencing results of 8.8% over their asking prices on average, the most important measure of the market. More specifically, the average list price actually rose 10% to $889,000 the average sale price rose to $967,000 that was almost 7% more than 2022. At the same time, South Orange township recorded 145 closed units, which represents a drop of 10% over the year before.
Not to worry, the drop in unit sales is consistent with what we’re seeing in the overall area as well; there are consistently fewer and fewer homes on the market to sell and as a result of that the number of sales continues to drop. This drop-off in unit sales started back in 2021 with a very modest drop, then accelerated dramatically in 2022 with a 43% drop off in units and then, as we just learned, in 2023 we’re seeing a 10% drop from 2022.
Some of the more important statistics I use to best evaluate how the market is working is to see how the performance breaks out in terms of the percentage of homes that’s sold for Over Asking, also the percentage of homes that sold for their asking price and lastly, the number of properties that sold for less than their asking prices. In 2023 we can see that properties that sold for Under Asking decreased slightly to 11% of the total unit sold. At the same time, South Orange did experience an increase to 13% of the homes that sold in 2023; when you combine the asking plus the below asking closed transaction, they add up to 24% of the units. However, this leaves a robust 76% of the homes selling for more than asking, more simply put, that means ¾’s of the property sold for over asking which is an incredible statistic.
I’m always curious as the highest prices paid, the highest list price and the highest and worst percentages versus asking. With that in mind, there was a tie with two listings having the highest list price at $1,799,000 and both of these properties selling for the highest recorded sale price of $1,8000,000. Those are some very hefty numbers; but, the actual highest percentage paid over asking was an astounding 46% over asking while the lowest percentage paid versus asking was 91%.
Furthermore, I found it ironic that while total unit sales were down, South Orange actually posted the same number of homes sold for $1 million and above at 56 units in 2023, the same as recorded in 2022. Because of the total unit drop, these equated into a percentage that increased from 35 to 39%.
As I trust you will agree, the overall real estate performance in 2023 was phenomenal in South Orange. More importantly, we expect this trend to carry over into 2023.
If you are interested in selling your South Orange property, I want you to know that The Mark Slade Homes Team at Keller Williams continues to outpace the township’s total average results by a wide margin. Our team sold our listing clients’ properties for 17.2% over asking, which compares quite favorably–just under twice–the township average of the 8.8%. We attribute the success our Sellers are having as a result of our marketing and our system for getting you SOLD. This has led to us newly “minting” our listing system—Smart RE-sults©™–which is both Copyright and Trademark pending.
If you are someone you know is looking or considering selling their South Orange home, I’d love to meet with them to see how I can best help them accomplish their 2024 real estate goals.
If you have any questions, we would love to hear from you. You can call me or text me at 917-797-5059. Once again, this is Mark Slade from Keller Williams Midtown Direct, head of the Mark Slade Homes Team which ranks in the Top 1% of area Realtors. Thank you for taking the time to read or listen to this post.
