Despite interest rates rising above 6% for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, the average sales price for a house in Carbon County continues to rise.

According to Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors, the average sales price in May was $255,960. In May 2022, it was $240,342. That’s a 6.5% price increase.

What dropped is the number of closed sales, pending sales, and new listings.

Comparing May 2022 to this May, closed sales slipped from 78 to 58 units. Pending sales dipped from 76 to 62 units, and new listings dropped from 104 to 95 houses.

With sales down a little, overall inventory increased to 131 units, giving Carbon County a 2.2 months’ supply of homes. The days on market also increased a little from 22 days last May to 23 days in May this year.

The story is a little different in the Lehigh Valley. The Valley has experienced a 33.5% drop in inventory from May 2022 to May of this year even though closed sales, pending sales and new listings are all down, just like in Carbon County. The average sale price of a house in the Lehigh Valley is $350,246, up from $319,404 last year.

Justin Porembo, the corporate executive officer of GLVR, said the Lehigh Valley has just 0.9 months’ of supply or a little less than a month of supply of houses. He thinks interest rates are to blame.

“While fluctuating interest rates have pushed some buyers to the sidelines, a shortage of inventory is also to blame for lower-than-average home sales this time of year, as current homeowners, many of whom locked in mortgage rates several percentage points below today’s current rates, are delaying the decision to sell until market conditions improve,” Porembo said.

Although 30-year fixed rate mortgage interest rates are the highest they have been since June 2006, according to statistics from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, interest rates have been even higher for the entire period from 1971 to 2002. The highest rates reached was 18.5% in October 1981.

On the national scale, homeowners appear to be afraid to jump in the market.

GLVR President Howard Schaeffer said that according to the National Association of Realtors, “The national housing shortage is most acute in price points that middle-income buyers can afford. The market is short about 320,000 listings worth up to $256,000, which is considered the affordability range for households earning up to $75,000 annually. Due to the pronounced inventory squeeze in these price points, middle-income buyers may find the steepest competition when shopping for homes.”

At Carbon Chamber and Economic Development’s State of the County meeting, Schaeffer noted in GLVR’s presentation on June 14 at Blue Mountain Resort that the volatility housing market in 2021 began to calm down in 2022.

“Mortgage rates were near historic lows, buyer competition was fierce, and homes were selling at a breakneck pace, often with multiple bids and all-cash offers, due to pent-up demand and a shortage of housing supply, causing sales prices to soar to new heights. But all that changed a few months later as mortgage rates began to rise, adding hundreds of dollars to monthly mortgage payments and causing housing affordability to plummet to its lowest level in decades,” as stated in the presentation.

The first quarter of 2022 for the percent of the original list price received was 96.9%. It has come down a little to 94.1% in 2023, but still strong.

As for the near future, GLVR said that demand for housing is still great in Carbon County, and active buyers “are taking advantage of any rate declines, as evidenced by the recent uptick in contract signings, new construction and existing-home sales.”