Real Estate Recap and Pickleball

I want to recap the home sales results from January and then a few words about pickleball in our area.

The number of closed sales for January decreased 40% from January 2022.  However, pending sales (not yet closed) increased by almost 10%.  (101 this year, 92 last year)  Our inventory of homes for sale has increased 27% from January 2022.  Our month’s supply of inventory is now 2.0 months compared to 1.3 months last year in January.  This is a good trend, however. we are still in a seller’s market and need more homes to come on the market.  Inventory is particularly scarce in the $200,000 to $400,000 price range.  We still have many buyers in this price range that cannot find a home that works for them.

Hopefully, more homes will come on the market in the spring and help rebalance our market by summer.  We do have several new housing developments in the works.

Pickleball is probably the fastest growing sport in America.  We are fortunate here to have the Waynesville Rec Center.  They have swimming, exercise equipment, a walking track, racquetball, basketball, volleyball, and pickleball courts.  The Rec Center also has 3 pickleball courts in the old Armory on Boundary Street.  For those of us who are retired and have a Medicare Supplement or Medicare Advantage, the rec center works with Silver Sneakers and AARP United Healthcare to provide gym memberships at no charge with those insurance plans.  In addition to the rec center, there are outdoor courts at Lake Junaluska, courtesy of the Junaluska Assembly.  Bear Waters Brewing is reportedly opening a new brewery location on South Main Street in Waynesville close to Walmart with some indoor pickleball courts.

Bottom line, we have an active and welcoming pickleball community here in our area.  If you are retired and moving here from Florida, Texas, or any other state and play Pickleball at home, just bring your paddle and come on up.