Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
More and more real estate signs are showing up as houses are selling at a slower rate in 2016. Prices have also taken a dip by an average of $9,300 per house.
The real estate market in the Sidney area saw a dramatic decrease at the beginning of the year.
Louella Pippitt, Cheyenne County assessor, said houses have been selling, but prices are on average lower than normal.
"For the most part the (listing prices) are running less," she said. "We are sitting at 94 percent market value. We are normally at 98 to 100 (percent)."
According to Kelly Lapp, with Re/Max Realty Partners in Sidney, there are currently 105 houses listed in the area.
"It's a soft market with plenty of listings," Lapp said. "There are just not enough buyers for the amount of houses we have on the market."
Over 100 houses listed on Realtor.com dropped their prices an average of $9,300 per home. The majority of the houses were listed between March of 2015 and December of 2015.
"It is a buyers market," Lapp said. "We went from one extreme, not having enough houses, to having an abundance."
According to Pippitt, 58 houses sold from October 2014 to February 2015. From October 2015 to now there have been 48 sales.
"There have been 16 home sales from the first of January to now, compared to 17 that were sold in the same time frame last month," Pippitt said.
Layoffs and closings are some of the reasons for the dip in the housing market. CommScope is set to close its doors in 2016, losing more than 140 jobs, and Commercial Resins Company will leave the county with a loss of 25 jobs. Add to that layoffs from Cabela's last fall and continued speculation about the future of the company in Sidney, and the market has taken a dip in prices even though the listings are still selling.
"There are some houses selling. I think everyone is getting over the shock of Cabela's," said Valerie Neinhueser, owner of the Cheyenne County Title & Escrow in Sidney.
Lawrence Yun, chief economist with the National Association of Realtors, recently released his 2016 forecast in which he said slower growth is expected this year.
"The housing market may struggle to gain home sales," he said in the forecast. "Last year was a good year with 7 percent growth in home sales. This year we may only see 1.3 percent growth."
Yun said in the forecast that "areas where there is strong job growth there will be a stronger housing demand, areas where there are job loses there will be fewer home buying activities."
Even though the housing market is down, construction for The Ranch, the $5 million Cablea's housing project, is still underway. In January, StoneCrest Construction of Fort Collins, Colo., began construction on the first four homes there. StoneCrest owner Robert Millward said in January that his company has been working with the city and Cabela's for two years to help respond to the housing shortage in Sidney.
While the homes were initially planned to be more expensive, some high-end finishes have been removed to make the homes more competitive.
"We decided because of the volume of homes that could come on the market because of layoffs at the wire plant, we need to be more competitive," Millward said last month.
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