June’s home sale numbers brought nothing but good news, with increases in both units sold and sale prices, as well as a strong jump in the number of new construction sales. These June numbers are indicative of a market that has been consistently strong for the first half of 2015.

Homes sales in June 2015 totaled 162 units – a 14 percent increase over the 142 units sold in 2014. Among existing homes, 151 units sold in June, an increase of 9.4 percent from 138 units that sold in 2014. The average sale price of existing homes was $193,853. This represents an increase of 1.1 percent from the June 2014 average price of $191,693.

New construction sales, which have been modest at best for most of 2015, had a very strong month with 11 sales occurring in the month of June, up from four units the prior year, representing an increase of 175 percent. The average sale price of new homes in June was $338,382, up 33.1 percent from the same period last year.

“The market has been really strong through the first half of 2015, and we have every indication that we’ll continue this trend through the coming months,” said Crystal Swearingen, President of the Lawrence Board of Realtors. “Our supply of homes remains very low, so homes are selling very quickly, some with competing offers from buyers, which puts upward pressure on home prices.”

The year-to-date total of home sales in Lawrence as of July 1, 2015 was 627 homes, up 19 percent from the same date in 2014. The average sale price for 2015 is $198,492, an increase of 2 percent from last year.

The inventory of active listings in the City of Lawrence stood at 334 units at the end of June, which is down from 457 homes that were on the market at the end of June last year. At the current rate of sales, this figure represents 2.1 months’ supply of homes on the market.

A total of 142 contracts for sale were written in June 2015, up from 99 in June 2014. This is an increase of 43.4 percent. Contracts written during the month reflect, in part, sales that will close in the near future.