April 6, 2023

Sioux Falls home sales had another sluggish month in March, dropping 25 percent compared with a year ago.

That’s a slight improvement over February, when they were down 30 percent, and from January, when they were down 33 percent.

New listings dropped 2 percent, leaving the market with a 2.4-month supply of homes to end the first quarter, according to the Realtor Association of the Sioux Empire. That represents 603 houses on the market, which is a 20 percent drop from last year.

“Nationally, existing home sales jumped 14.5 percent month over month as of last measure, the first monthly gain in 12 months and representing the largest monthly increase since July 2020, according to the National Association of Realtors,” the report said. “The sudden uptick in sales activity stems from contracts signed toward the beginning of the year, when mortgage rates dipped to the low 6 percent range, causing a surge in homebuyer activity. Pending sales have continued to improve heading into spring, increasing for the third consecutive month, according to NAR.”

The average price of a house sold in Sioux Falls in March was $329,572, down 2.4 percent from a year ago. The median price, $295,000, was up 6 percent.

Sellers received 98.6 percent of their original list price on average, which is down from 102.2 percent a year ago.

Inventory in Sioux Falls is about the same as the national average.

“Inventory remains suppressed in part because of mortgage interest rates, which nearly hit 7 percent before falling again in recent weeks,” the report said. “Higher rates have continued to put downward pressure on sales prices, and for the first time in more than a decade, national home prices were lower year over year, according to NAR, breaking a 131-month streak of annual price increases.”

The price range with the largest gain in sales in Sioux Falls compared with a year ago was $900,000 to $1 million, where they increased 93.8 percent.