2020 End of Year Report
Ok, I’ll just say it. 2020 was a strange year, in nearly every imaginable way. Happy to talk about the thousand other things that are on people’s minds. But, here, we’re just going to talk about real estate. Mostly.
Sales were up. Sale prices were up. Land sales and $500,000 property sales were way up. It’s true that there were a lot of out of state buyers. But there were also a LOT of in state buyers.
Median Sale Price
Here’s what everyone wants to see. What the heck happened in 2020, compared to 2019. Well, it was kind of bananas. Median sale prices, and the change from year to year were through the roof.
| % Change 2019-2020 | |
|---|---|
| Barre City | 12.82% |
| Barre Town | 14.11% |
| Montpelier | 7.42% |
| U32 | 16.42% |
| Northfield/Williamstown | 15.24% |
| All Towns | 15.53% |
The numbers round out considerably when we look at the number of sales over the past five years. In every submarket, there were more sales in 2020 than in 2019. U32 and Barre Town saw a LOT of action. For fun here, we can compare the five year trend as well as the one year trend.
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barre City | 89 | 90 | 89 | 88 | 93 |
| Barre Town | 79 | 109 | 89 | 86 | 111 |
| Montpelier | 87 | 94 | 73 | 73 | 81 |
| U32 | 76 | 84 | 83 | 94 | 114 |
| Northfield/Williamstown | 61 | 68 | 77 | 88 | 90 |
| All Towns | 392 | 445 | 411 | 429 | 489 |
Median Days on Market
We thought 2019 was a great year for shorter days on the market. And it was. But 2020 sped things up even more. With the exceptions of Barre City and Montpelier, every other market saw shorter days on market in 2020 than in 2019.
| % Change 2019-2020 | |
|---|---|
| Barre City | 25.00% |
| Barre Town | -41.46% |
| Montpelier | 20.00% |
| U32 | -52.17% |
| Northfield/Williamstown | -25.71% |
| All Towns | -35.90% |
And, in real terms, this is what the median days on market numbers looked like. I find it interesting that Barre Town, U32, and Northfield and Williamstown are all so closely clustered. I’m not reading anything into that. It’s just interesting.
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barre City | 88 | 67 | 42 | 44 | 55 |
| Barre Town | 49 | 75 | 29 | 41 | 24 |
| Montpelier | 43 | 35 | 40 | 10 | 12 |
| U32 | 68 | 49 | 60 | 46 | 22 |
| Northfield/Williamstown | 66 | 54 | 45 | 35 | 26 |
| Total | 61 | 55 | 43 | 39 | 25 |
Multi-Family Report
2020 was an active year for residential multi-family properties. Here we’ll focus on Barre City and Montpelier, which are the two most active multi-family towns in Central Vermont. And, truth be told, the bulk of the activity is in Barre City.
Here the number that jumps out is the number of sales. It increased steadily from 2016-2018 and then almost doubled from 18 to 35 sales in 2019. The market held that elevated number of sales in 2020.
| Total Number of Sales | |
|---|---|
| Barre City | 15 |
| Barre Town | 18 |
| Montpelier | 18 |
| U32 | 35 |
| Northfield/Williamstown | 31 |
Looking only at duplex sales, there’s a clear increase in per unit sale price over the past five years. Barre City’s price per unit saw a really nice bump in 2020.
| Barre Price Per Unit (Duplex) | Montpelier Price Per Unit (Duplex) | |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | $66,225 | $95,000 |
| 2017 | $67,750 | $124,000 |
| 2018 | $41,750 | $113,375 |
| 2019 | $52,500 | $135,000 |
| 2020 | $63,250 | $115,000 |
Land Sales
This is the first year that we’ve included data on land sales in Washington County. And, yes, it’s because 2020 was just a weird year. Historically, land sales are pretty stable. But not in 2020!
| Washington County | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | % Change 2019-2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Land Sales | 85 | 85 | 85 | 90 | 151 | 67.78% |
| Median Days on Market | 176 | 194 | 223 | 139 | 137 | -1.44% |
Look at the massive jump in land sales. 67%? Are you kidding me?? I figured you wouldn't need a graph to drive this point home. But you know what, why not.
$500,000+ Sales
And what would the real estate world of 2020 be without yet one more oddball data point. In Washington County, in 2020, the number of sales of properties $500,000 or higher more nearly doubled. The number of sales of $1 million properties increased by almost 50%, but that was only from 7 sales to 10 sales.
| Washington County | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | % Change 2019-2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Sales | 30 | 28 | 39 | 55 | 104 | 89.09% |
Again, can you picture something almost doubling?
Gratitude
And last, thank you to all of our clients, past clients, friends, and supporters. In 2020, Green Light Real Estate helped with more than 190 sales (not quite 200) and more than half of those came from past clients, people who know us personally, and referrals. It means a lot when people make the effort to recommend that their friends work with Green Light Real Estate!
