Kent County, DE and Cecil County, MD markets posted a strong home sales performance in January. That was based on figures from Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate, Delaware’s largest residential brokerage firm.
The figures are based on area multiple listing services reports.
Kent, which has been pulling out of an economic slump that is partially due to government cutbacks (State of Delaware and Dover Air Force Base) posted a nearly 22 percent increase in homes sold and a 2.4 percent increase in the median price. Homes under contract rose by nearly 17 percent.
Announcements last week that two large tracts near Milford and Frederica were on the market seemed to indicate a greater degree of optimism about the Kent County market. The two tracts combined could have upwards of 2,000 homes. (See story, page 15).
Cecil saw a 43.6 percent jump in home prices. The median sales price rose 3.9 pecent; from $178,000 to $185,000. On the minus side, the number of homes that went under contract in January decreased 26.6 percent from January 2014.
Posting a solid performance across all territories was Sussex County, which saw an 8.1 percent increase in the number of sold homes compared to the first month 2014 and a 5.7 percent increase in the median sales price from $245,000 to $259,000. The number of homes that went under contract in the first month of 2015 increased 60.2 percent from 2014.
New Castle County saw a three percent decrease in home sales for the one-month period, compared to 2014, with a 2.4 percent increase in the median price from $190,000 to $194,500. The number of homes going under contract increased 4.6 percent from 2014.
Southern Chester County experienced a 3.8 percent decrease in the number of sold homes in the first month of 2015 when compared to 2014 and an 8 percent increase in the median price of sold homes, from $316,500 to $341,689.
The number of homes that went under contract in the first month of 2015 decreased 12.1 percent from January 2014.
