South Hills housing market off to a fast start
Driven by continued Marcellus shale drilling, the housing market in Southern Allegheny and Washington counties is off to a fast start during the first quarter of 2015.
“It really is a hot market,” said Jim Saxon, president of Berkshire Hathaway The Preferred Realty, one of the Pittsburgh area’s largest residential real estate companies. “Homes in the $150,000 to $300,000 price range are not sitting on the market for very long.”
According to Saxon, the average selling price of a home in Southern Allegheny County, which includes Mt. Lebanon, Bethel Park, and Upper St. Clair, was $151,000 for the first quarter of this year and the average selling price of a home in Washington County for the first three months of 2015 was $200,000, said Saxon, a Peters Township resident. By comparison, the first-quarter selling prices for the same period a year earlier were $138,000 and $175,000, respectively.
Other realtors agreed that the South Hills market had a brisk first quarter and should have a strong year.
“I think people see the value in top-rated schools and having your every need met at your fingertips from new developments in Upper St. Clair and Peters to classic character and charm in Mt. Lebanon,” said Lisa Clever, a realtor with Coldwell Banker’s Shadyside office who lives in Upper St. Clair with her husband, Ken, also a realtor, and their two young children.
“It’s hard not to find something that would suit your taste,” she said. “While I grew up in Squirrel Hill and my husband grew up in the Midwest, we needed a place we would both love. I needed convenience and my husband needed space. With two small children, we also needed something that could give us more bang for our buck.”
Bill Russo, a Howard Hanna Real Estate Services vice president and Southwest Regional Manager, also said the South Hills market is strong because it has a variety of housing options.
“There is product for everyone,” he said. “It is like going to Sarris’ for a box of chocolates and trying to decide which one you want.”
First-quarter statistics from West Penn Multi-List, Inc., a 13-county real estate cooperative of residential companies in the 13-county region, show the market, as a whole, is also strong. The average home sale price increased by nearly six percent to $164,865 from the same period a year earlier. Plus, the average time a home was on the market was 95 days, down two days from the first quarter of 2014.
The number of listings during the first quarter totaled 8,074, up from 7,850 from the same period last year. Also, the number of residential homes placed under agreement in the first quarter grew by 4.14 percent compared to the same period a year earlier.
“New listings remain steady compared to last year at this time, but the absorption rate has increased, which is a good indicator,” said Tom Hosack, current president of the Multi-List and CEO of Northwood Realty Services in Pittsburgh.
“The ratio of average listing price versus the average sales price reflects a balanced market, which means it’s a win-win situation for buyers and sellers alike,” Hosack said.