While seasonality has always been a factor in real estate, we are seeing a very different trend this holiday season. In the past, December was a pretty quiet month. If buyers had not already found the home they were looking for, they would generally postpone the search into the new year.
That is definitely not the case right now. Inventory is ridiculously low in most markets and the buyers are out there in force. Multiple offers continue to be the name of the game and in my prediction will get worse over the next 6 weeks as inventory remains restricted.
Typically in my market statistics I give the number of active and under contract properties. In order to clearly illustrate how low the inventory is right now in most towns, I am going to show you a comparison of the number of active properties there were during the month of December for the past 3 years.
LOCAL MARKET STATISTICS -ACTIVE PROPERTIES COMPARISON
| Current | Dec-20 | Dec-19 | Dec-18 | |
| Maplewood | 13 | 26 | 48 | 53 |
| South Orange | 9 | 23 | 42 | 37 |
| West Orange | 40 | 54 | 121 | 126 |
| Montclair | 8 | 30 | 47 | 62 |
| Bloomfield | 32 | 36 | 50 | 51 |
| Millburn/S. Hills | 20 | 57 | 111 | 116 |
| Orange | 23 | 21 | 24 | 36 |
| Union | 44 | 56 | 113 | 145 |
| Summit | 12 | 52 | 63 | 76 |