The number of homes sold and their average selling prices in the Jefferson City area rose in 2015 from the previous year, according to year-end statistics released by the Jefferson City Area Board of REALTORS.
The board - which represents Cole, Callaway, Moniteau and Miller counties - reported 1,270 single-family residential units were sold between Jan. 1-Dec. 29, 2015, a 10.1 percent increase from the 1,153 sold during 2014.
The higher sales numbers came despite the area bringing fewer new listings and less foot traffic than the previous year. As of Dec. 1, 2015, there were 496 active single-family listings available for purchase in the area, compared to 671 at the same time in 2014.
"We had fewer new listings this year, but we sold more houses. That was probably the very end of the leftovers from the recession when the inventory was so high. By July of last year, our inventory was low," said Hank Vogt, Jefferson City Area Board of REALTORS president. "Our inventory has been slowly going down since 2012. ... Now we're at near normal levels, pre-recession. It's kind of leveling out."
Foot traffic, which the board measures by the number of lockbox accesses in the year, were down in 2015 by almost 8 percent compared to the year before.
"They don't have as many houses to look at, and buyers are making a decision after looking at fewer. We still have the buyers - everything's good - but it was a saturated market with houses back in 2006 through 2010 or 2011," Vogt said. "It's just a healthy market now, where it was a little unhealthy before when people wanted to sell their houses and couldn't because we just didn't have the buyers."
Vogt noted he still considers the current conditions to present a seller's market, with plenty of homes - but not too many - available locally in the average price range of $120,000 to $150,000.
The Jefferson City area's average home sales price climbed to $150,483 in 2015, a 6.5 percent increase from $141,357 in 2014.
"That's a pretty good jump for Mid-Missouri," Vogt said. "It's a good, steady increase."
The year before, the area's average sales prices barely changed - from $141,948 in 2013 to $141,357 in 2014.
Area homes sold during 2015 spent fewer days on the market, down to an average of 90 days from 96 in 2014.
"Five, six, seven years ago, we were talking 120 days on the market, houses staying six months to nine months on the market. The turnover rate is a lot less now," Vogt said. "We sell just as many or more houses, but they're on the market for less time."
Overall, single-family homes sold in the four-county Jefferson City area accounted for a total sales volume of $187,802,637 in 2015, an increase of 17.6 percent over last year's $159,732,907.
Missouri REALTORS has not yet released its 2015 year-end statistics for home sales statewide, but in November, 10.3 percent more homes had sold year-to-date than in November 2014 at a 6.9 percent higher median selling price.
Looking ahead to this year's outlook, Vogt said he expects 2016's real estate market to look similar to 2015's.
"The conditions are great. The interest is low; the Fed has announced that they will raise rates, but it will be so incremental in 2016 that it won't change much," he said.
As of Thursday, the current rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 3.92 percent, up slightly from the same time last year, according to the Freddie Mac website. Analysts expect rates to rise in 2016.
"We expect it to be a good market," Vogt said. "Our National Association of REALTORS has projected it to be a good market in Missouri. St. Louis is projected to be the second-hottest market in the country, and we hope that trickles down to us."