Hot housing market a boon for sellers in Westmoreland, Pittsburgh region

Record-low inventories of homes for sale in Western Pennsylvania have resulted in historically high sale prices as the corona­virus pandemic continues to impact the local housing market.

Real estate experts said the seller’s market for existing homes in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties is likely to continue into next year, a sharp contrast from a year ago when state restrictions all but shut the door on property sales in the early days of the virus’ outbreak.

“Homes are getting listed and selling the same day, over the listing price,” said Anna Peagler, executive director of the Realtors Association of Westmoreland, Indiana and the Mon Valley.

A review of property sales in Westmoreland County over the last year shows, after nearly bottoming out in March 2020, the real estate market saw sales jump throughout last summer, into fall and over the winter. And sale prices continue to exceed national averages.

Westmoreland County saw 9,769 properties sell in 2020 — an increase of 32 from 2019, a year not impacted by the pandemic, according to the county’s tax assess­ment office. In 2018, 10,320 properties sold.

The county’s largest communities — Hempfield, North Huntingdon, Penn Township, Unity and Murrysville — saw the most sales over the past 15 months, records show.

Throughout the U.S., home prices are expected to increase by 10% this year, said Gay Cororaton, a senior economist and director of housing and commercial research for the National Association of Realtors.

Locally, the market is running even hotter.

In Allegheny County, the median sale price of homes in April was $299,500, a 20% increase from the prior year. Westmoreland County saw a 19% jump, with the median listing price at $189,900, she said.

“Nationally, it’s really a hot market,” Cororaton said. “Prices are up. There is a 17.2% growth rate in the sales since we started to track it in 1999. No doubt, what’s driving the market is probably because of a lack of supply.”

The current inventory of homes could be gone within two months, she said.

Experts say fewer homes are on the market, which brings more demand and higher prices.

In April, the number of homes listed for sale nationally fell 43% to 598,668, according to Realtor.com. That’s 443,000 fewer homes on the market than April 2020 and the fewest since at least 2012, the Associated Press reported.

National statistics show that comparing listings from March 2020 to the same month this year, the number of homes on the market was down 41% in Allegheny County and 58% in Westmoreland.

Tony Molnar-Strejcek, director of sales at Howard Hanna Real Estate Services in Greensburg, confirmed that in the pre-pandemic era there were three times the available homes on the market than there are now.

In Hempfield, the county’s largest municipality, just 35 properties were on the market as of the end of May, Molnar-­Strejcek said. Meanwhile, 24 homes were listed in Greensburg, 21 in Unity, 17 in North Huntingdon and 15 in Latrobe.

He said Oakmont had 19 homes for sale, while 17 were on the market in New Kensington, 13 in Vandergrift, six in Arnold and five in Tarentum.

In Allegheny County, home listings were significantly higher in pre-pandemic times. There are currently 659 listings in eastern Allegheny County, 437 in the northern portion of the county, 378 in the southern region and 76 in the northwest section of the county.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Molnar-Strejcek said. “When we had to shut down last year, everything came to a screeching halt. We saw the numbers plummet. Once we started to go again, it skyrocketed and we hit record numbers.”

Some homes are purchased sight unseen. Others have received multiple offers above listing price.

Janet Czekalski, a Harrison-based Realtor who has been in the business for more than three decades, said she recently has seen homes sell for $20,000 to $40,000 above asking price.

“It’s just crazy,” Czekalski said. “It’s been the most unusual and unbelievable period I’ve ever been involved with.”

And higher sales prices mean more revenue for local communities through transfer taxes paid by sellers and buyers.

Hempfield saw more revenue in transfer taxes in 2020, even with three months of depressed sales because of the pandemic, than what was projected before coronavirus was a household word, according to Jason Winters, township manager.

Westmoreland County as a whole could ultimately be a big winner as the housing market continues to flourish. Average listing prices, while on the rise, still are considerably cheaper than what’s available in neighboring Allegheny County.

“There may be more growth due to the cheaper values,” Cororaton said.