Just like that, we're already one month into 2025. Time to make our first check in for the Lawrence real estate market numbers for thew new year!
Already, 2025 is off to a far stronger start than how we saw the year 2024 begin. Much stronger. Last year got off to a very weak start. This year, even though the number of homes sale declined from December by over 33%, there was still a 27% increase in sold homes in January this year vs. last year.
Instead of seeing a huge decline in average price like we did in 2024, this year January actually set a record for the highest-ever average sold home price at of almost $374,000! This was a pretty big increase month-over-month from December and a huge increase of over 36% year-over-year!
All of the stats that follow are sourced from the Lawrence MLS. What follows is a look at some market numbers specifically within the city limits of Lawrence:
Month-over-Month
- January home sales decreased 33.3% from the previous month with 52 sold homes
- Average price increased 13.5% in January vs. the previous month, up to $373.9K
- Average Days-on-Market was up 57.6% at 52 Days-on-Market
- 61 homes were listed in January, an increase from 43 listed in December
- List-Price-to-Sales-Price Ratio for January was 97.2%
- Average Per-Square-Foot in January was 185/sq.ft.
Year-over-Year
- Home sales were up 26.8% in January '25 vs January '24, an increase of 11 homes sold
- Average Price was up YOY 36.4% compared to January '24
- Dollar Volume was up 73.2% vs January '24 for a total of $19.4M in the month
- The 61 homes listed last month was a 7% decrease vs. January '24
- Average Per-Square-Foot was up 5.1% in January '25 vs. January '24
YTD
- Year-to-date numbers will start to be updated in March.
Active Properties
- There are 85 "Active" properties in Lawrence, a decrease of 9.6% since my last update
- There are 75 properties currently listed as "Under Contract" which is an increase of 33.9% since my last update
- Months-of-Supply: There is currently 1.2 months-of-supply in Lawrence
With such a strong start to the market this year, are these initial, January numbers indicating that the market is about to burst open into pandemonium leading to huge increases in value? Well, not quite so fast. And I'll give you a hint as to why I say this: the average days-on-market of homes sold last month was 52 days. That's a increase of over 57% from December. Which is also a 57% increase from January in 2024.
So what happened? I think the market was clearing out some old, higher-end inventory last month. Higher-priced homes can tend to sit on the market for longer, and out of the 52 home sales in the month, 35% of them sold for over $400,000. 11 of those sold for over $500,000. However, I do feel that the market is off to a very strong, very positive start.
January may look too hot, and there's probably some truth to that with numbers like these. While that average price may hold into spring, it's likely to decline a little going into next month's update. The numbers always balance out a bit in the long run. But as far as January can go, this was about as good as it gets!
Right now, however, the weather is downright dreadful. Frigid. And months-of-supply has increased a little, up to 1.2 months-of-supply. But there are signs of life. Just this past week a listing of ours went on the market and sold in 24 hours with multiple offers and ended up with a contract well in-excess of asking price. Things are moving. The spring market is here!
Stay tuned to R+K Real Estate for great new content, updates, advice, opinions and more in 2024. We plan to continue our advance of transparency, consumer advocacy, and empowering our clients with alternate business models designed to provide high levels or real estate service with drastically reduced commissions!
-Ryan Desch, Broker/Owner R+K Real Estate Solutions
