ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – There are not a lot of homes for sale in Albuquerque. Tom Caldwell said he’s excited to list his home in the booming Albuquerque housing market since homes are selling fast. “Most houses in the average price range are going to sell within a month,” Kent Cravens, CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors, said.

It’s something Caldwell saw first-hand with his neighbors. “The sign went up, it was just two and a half days before it was sold. There were people coming out, from 8 in the morning until 9 at night. It was like a zoo,” he said.

Homes on the market are in short supply these days. “A stable market, we will see 6 to 7,000 homes in the greater Albuquerque area for sale at a time. Which is six months’ worth of inventory. Right now as the end of January we have 751 homes listed,” Cravens said. “Buyers, if you’re serious, you need to move very quickly…If you’re a seller, make sure you have some place to go or you may be living in the back seat for a few weeks. There’s just not that much to go out and buy. If you sell your home and don’t have another place to go from there.”

The low inventory and interest rates are contributing to higher prices. “The average resale right now is over $300,000 which is the first time in, I don’t know if it’s ever been that high,” Cravens said. He said the skyrocketing price of lumber is also contributing to higher housing and building costs.

The price pressure extending to upper-end homes as well. “Even in the $5-600,000 range, there are instant and multiple offers on good clean properties that are in good neighborhoods,” Cravens said.

With spring around the corner, it’s unclear how the market trends will move forward. “Typically, in February, March, April, we see an uptick in mobility. People begin to move around because they want to be set for school and when school gets out, people want to be ready to move, they want to get moved and set back in place before the next school year begins,” Cravens said. “Are people going to move? Do they want to stay home now because they can work from home? A lot of factors that we’re not really sure yet at the end of February how that’s going to play out for the rest of the Spring.”

While some buyers during the pandemic are coming from out of state, one realtor says many are New Mexicans who are opting to own as rent prices in the area go up.