Curb Appeal: $7.8M in homes make the list

To start 2020, real estate agents listed $7.8 million worth of high-dollar homes in the Queen City, according to Southern Missouri Regional MLS data.

For the monthly editorial series Curb Appeal, Springfield Business Journal compiled a list of single-family homes within city limits that have an asking price of $500,000 or more. Ten properties made the list in January, compared with six in December and nine in November.

Editor’s note: Walnut Street Inn, 900 E. Walnut St., met SBJ’s parameters when searching the Southern Missouri Regional MLS database. However, Greene County assessor records list the property with a commercial zoning, so it was removed from the list. The business was put up for sale last month after the death of co-owner Gary Blankenship in November 2019.

National trends
Existing home sales in the United States were flat in 2019, according to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors.

During the year, 5.34 million existing homes sold. In the Midwest region, existing home sales totaled 1.25 million, a 1.6% drop from 2018. The South region recorded a 2.2% increase to 2.3 million, while the West was down 1.8% to 1.12 million homes sold and the Northeast region was unchanged at 690,000, according to NAR data.

“I view 2019 as a neutral year for housing in terms of sales,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, in a news release. “Home sellers are positioned well, but prospective buyers aren’t as fortunate. Low inventory remains a problem, with first-time buyers affected the most.”

NAR report highlights, as of Dec. 31:
• Total housing inventory was 1.4 million units, representing an 8.5% drop from a year earlier.
• The median existing home price for all housing types was $274,500 to close out the year, a 7.8% increase from December 2018. In the Midwest, the median price was $208,500, a 9.2% jump from the end of 2018.
• In December, properties were on the market for an average of 41 days, down from 46 days a year earlier.