It's no secret that Eastern PA real estate is on fire, but how did Berks County fare with appreciation since the end of May?
Since real estate was reinstated as essential in late May, Berks inventory has been thin and suburban migration heavy, pushing prices up and days on market down.
The first chart below is an illustration of median days on market (blue) and list price per square foot (green) for a detached house in Berks County, from Bright multi listing service. At June's beginning, homes were lasting 16 days until sale on average, but that got cut in half by the end of the year. As for list price per square foot ratio, it was $124 in May of 2018. After real estate came back post-shutdown in 2020, it was $138 on June first. But in six short months, it soared to $156 by December.
Consider a 2,000 square foot house. At $138 per square foot, you'd be at $276,000. Six short months later, $156 per square foot takes that up $36,000 to $312,000!
Structure Type is 'Detached'
Was Lancaster County any better? Although they did see an increase, it wasn't like Berks when it comes to price per square feet. While days on market got cut in half from 14 to seven, list price per square foot ratio started at $167 June 1st, but climbed to $174 December 1st.
However, Lancaster County has seen a steady increase since October of 2018, when price per square foot was $146 (see chart below)
And here are the same statistics for nearby Chester County with more of the same- days to sell cut in half, and a steady increase in price per square foot from May 2020 to December:
Happy New Year, and stay tuned for more articles and statistics!
