What’s Happening to Our Market You Ask?
Our real estate market is continuing to stabilize, but we still have a ways to go. The number of foreclosures in March was the highest so far since our market started to decline. Those foreclosed homes must work there way through the system before our market can completely stabilize. That being said there are positives to be pointed out about our market. While the $275,000 - $500,000 price range is still flooded with inventory, under $275,000 the market is “very normal” with only a 2-3 month supply in any given price range. I don’t like to use averages because it can skew what’s really going on in the market, but I will share a few statistics here that will help us all understand why our market has not stabilized. The number of new residential listings as compared to 2007 at this same time is up 22% so far this year. Also compared to 2007 the number of under contract homes or pending home sales is down 21% and the number of sold homes down 23%. When the number of listings coming on the market is more than the previous year and the pending sales and sold homes are less, it creates an over supply of inventory. This inventory must be absorbed before the market stabilizes. On a positive note, the average sales price is across the market is still stable at $220,000 and the average sale to list price remains 98% on average. The linked chart shows graphically what I am describing here. On another note, the geographic areas of the market that are suffering the most are