Jason Jennings

The Ames real estate market had no major shifts during February, but we did see a slight seasonal slowing of sales. We weren’t sure we were going to get that after a red-hot January, but the market appears to have taken a small breath to compose itself for a spring and summer that will likely speed things right back up. While interest rates increased again in February, this time to 4.026%, we believe the real estate market’s slower pace has more to do with seasonality rather than rising rates. The 4% rates are still historically low and create an incentive for buyers to act now.

An indicator of the adjusted pace of the market was the days on market. We decided to add median days on market to the monthly market report to better reflect the rate at which houses are moving. Average days on market can be skewed by houses that have been on the market for 100+ days, while the median days on market is able to help quiet the “noise” of those outliers.

For the first time in a year, houses tended to stay on the market for longer than 10 days. The median days on market was just over two weeks while the average days on market was at its highest level since March of 2021. While a house staying on the market for 15 days may seem long, that’s relative to this current market. Historically, 15 days is still very quick.

What’s encouraging for the Ames market is active listings rose to 56, after a January that had just 47 active listings. Again, that’s still historically low — at the market’s current rate, the Ames market has just a month’s worth of inventory. Hopefully we can continue that trend of getting more active listings on the market to create a healthier real estate market ecosystem.