While Monroe County has seen an increase in market values and held steady, other neighboring counties in the Poconos are now seeing slight declines in their market values.
The Poconos market is also seeing tight supply, due to the growing number of investors driving up home prices.
Becky Freeman has been a realtor in the Poconos for nearly 30 years. During this period, she has seen many market fluctuations, such as the market highs of 2004 and the crash of 2007, but it is nothing like what she describes now.
“The limited supply of real estate right now is mostly due in part to new Airbnb investors. After the COVID-19 pandemic, investors bought or turned whatever they could into short-term rentals. They are able to pay top dollar, above and beyond actual appraised values and thus inflate or rather recreate new market value.”
Estate agent Yarrow Wilkins said one of the biggest challenges for buyers, especially first-time home buyers, are buyers coming in to buy short-term rental properties,
“These people have the ability to pay a lot more than even a traditional second home buyer. They can rent it out on weekends or week after week and so they care a lot less about the purchase price, often paying cash or more. above the value of the property. This type of buyer will continue to drive up our market instead of stabilizing it. Wilkins told this news agency in May.
“If I get 50 calls in my office, 45 of them are people looking to buy a house to use for short-term rental,” Wilkins said. “That’s huge. Because again, we’re geographically sitting right next to Manhattan, right next to the Bronx, and right next to Philadelphia. We’re an easy place. I estimate that’s at least 70 to 80% of people looking to buy in this region.”
Monroe County home prices remain steady
A typical Monroe home fetched $350,000 in June, up 0.1% from $349,500 the previous month, an analysis of data from Realtor.com shows.
The median home price in June was up about 25% from June 2021. The median home in Monroe County was 1,974 square feet with a list price of $173 per square foot.
The Monroe County market was busy, with a median of 34 days on the market. A month earlier, homes had a median of 33 days on the market. The market added 508 new home listings in June, compared to 516 in June 2021. The market ended the month with some 796 home listings for sale.
Median home prices published by Realtor.com can exclude many, if not most, homes from a market. Price and volume represent single family homes, condominiums or townhouses only. They include existing homes, but exclude most new construction as well as current and potential sales.
Information about your local housing market is available via the USA TODAY Network, with more data from Realtor.com.
Fixed price?First-time home buyers face an uphill battle in Poconos
March data:Record housing market pushes Monroe County home prices to $265,000
Elsewhere in the Poconos
A typical Wayne County home fetched $344,500 in June, down 1.6% from $349,950 the previous month, an analysis of data from Realtor.com shows.
The median home price in June was up about 15% from June 2021. The median home in Wayne County was 2,222 square feet with a list price of $165 per square foot.
The Wayne County market was busy, with a median of 48 days on market. A month earlier, homes had a median of 39 days on the market. The market added 220 new home listings in June, compared to 256 in June 2021. The market ended the month with some 374 home listings for sale.
Home prices in Pike County fell 8.3%, to a median value of $299,900, from the previous month. The typical home was on the market for 37 days, down from 34 days a month earlier. The typical 2,169 square foot home had a list price of $149 per square foot.
Home prices in Lackawanna County rose 4.4%, to a median of $240,000, from the previous month. The typical home was on the market for 42 days, down from 36 days a month earlier. The typical 1,970 square foot home had a list price of $120 per square foot.
Across Pennsylvania, median home prices were $299,000, up 2.2% from the previous month. The median home for sale in Pennsylvania had 1,750 square feet at a list price of $174 per square foot.
In the United States, median home prices were $450,000, up 0.7% from the previous month. The median US home for sale had 1,887 square feet, listed at $228 per square foot.
Median home list price – the midpoint of all homes or units listed over a given time period – is used more often in this report instead of average home list price, as experts say the median provides a more accurate view. of what is happening in a market. To find the average price, all listed home prices are added together and then divided by the number of homes sold. This measure can be distorted by a low or high price.
The USA TODAY Network publishes localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from the Realtor.com residential listings database.. The story was written by Mike Stucka and Sean Lahman.
Maria Francis covers housing and real estate in the Poconos and is based at the Pocono Record. Contact her by emailing [email protected].
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