Good news for the Kansas City area, according to recent data from the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors. The metro Kansas City housing market started the year with a solid seller’s market for existing homes with average prices up 16 percent and the supply of existing homes down 10 percent from a year ago. The average sales price of an existing home last month was $156,833, up 16 percent from January 2013, according to the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors. There were 9,114 existing homes listed on the market, down 10 percent from the previous year.

As the real estate market strengthens in Kansas City, the current state of the local industry is a seller’s market as supply continues to dwindle. Looking forward, there were 1,504 pending contracts for existing homes in January, down 4 percent from a year ago. There were 192 pending contracts for new homes, 12 percent less than January 2013.