February 25, 2019 High Country home sales in the first four weeks of 2019 were strikingly similar to the first four weeks of 2018, even as interest rates trends were going in opposite directions in both periods. Since peaking at a seven-year high last November, interest rates have steadily fallen through the first few weeks of the new year. That’s a reversal from this time last year, when rates were spiking. Yet in both instances buyers remained engaged in the local housing market, according to sales figures collected by the High Country Association of Realtors®. There were 141 homes sold for $38.24 million in January, as recorded by the High Country Multiple Listing Service. It tracks all Realtor® sales in Alleghany, Ashe, Avery and Watauga counties. That activity occurred as interest rates declined by two tenths of a percent. Exactly one year ago interest rates were rising, increasing almost three tenths of a percent in a four-week span. Yet that January Realtors sold® 139 homes worth $34.88 million. To put the recent sales in perspective, from 2005 to 2017 local Realtors® sold during January an average of 81 homes. The peak in that span was 114 sold in January 2016.
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