April Brings Some Small Improvement
The April sales report has just been released by the Pinellas Realtor Organization, and the figures show some small improvements. Let's take a look ...
We will begin as always with the Absorption Rate (AR), or inventory turn, for the month.
For single family homes in Pinellas County, the AR for April was 6.3%. That's an improvement over March's AR of 5.4%, and in this market I'll take any kind of good news. A year ago in April of 2007, the AR was at 6.7%. Hmmm ... every time I find a little good news I find a reason to not cheer too loudly.
For condos, the AR for April was 4.1% as compared to the March AR of 3.6%. The AR for April of 2007 was 3.8%, so that's a legitimate improvement over the same period last year.
So much for percentages, which can sometimes be misleading. Let's take a look at hard numbers ...
Single Family Homes
Single family home listings are down. This could be because some sellers have just given up and taken their properties off the market in the hope of better times in the future, or they've put them into some kind of rental situation. Or, maybe they just decided to keep the house. Who knows?
For April, 8,757 single family homes were in the MLS system. By comparison, 8,872 were on the market in March. So, listings are down a little. This is actually the lowest number of single family listings since May of 2006 when there were 8,564 in the MLS system.
The good news is that the number of homes sold in April was an improvement! During April there were 549 homes sold in Pinellas County as compared to 481 in March. In fact, home sales have been improving each month during 2008. Still, home sales lag as compared to April of last year when 615 were sold. So, year over year, single family home sales are down.
The median price of single family homes continues to drop. For April, the median was $178,000; for March it was $180,000. When you compare April's median to the same month last year, the median price has dropped 16.2% in Pinellas County. We had a similar median price in November of 2003 when the median for single family homes stood at $177,000. So, does this mean prices for single family homes have rolled back to 2003 levels? Some might say it is beginning to look that way.
Condominiums
At first glance, condo sales seem to have improved. But we need to take a second look to see what is really happening.
The number of condo listings in April stood at 7,698. In March it was 7,915. So, there are fewer condos on the market now than last month.
Condo sales took a nice jump in April as compared to March. In April, 319 condos were sold in Pinellas County as compared to 282 in March. But don't start saying the condo problem has been solved. It's not.
If you look at sales of condos in April of 2007, you will find that 355 condos were sold during that month. So, year over year, the number of condo sales are down. Forget about the AR which shows an improvement; the hard numbers show that condo sales are down compared to the same period last year.
What about the price of condos? The median price continues to fall and for April '08 was down to $172,000; in March it was $177,900. That's a $5,900 drop in median price in 30 days. That's pretty bad news if you're a condo owner trying to sell for top dollar.
Here's what it all adds up to: Listing inventory today is down 2,000 units compared to April 2007, and residential unit sales (homes + condos) are down by 102 units April '07 to April '08. If you were to look at things from a bit longer perspective, in April 2008 there were a total of 868 properties sold; in April of 2005 there were 2,215 properties sold in 30 days. Quite a difference.
If you're a seller there is some good news here. Fewer listings on the market means a little less competition for buyer attention. That's good for sellers, but bad for buyers. For buyers, fewer properties on the market means your choices are a bit more limited today and your ability to negotiate may be just a bit weaker since sellers know you don't have quite as many buying choices as you did a year ago. It's still a strong buyer's market, but perhaps not quite as muscular as it was a year ago.
For more information on real estate in Pinellas County, visit my website at http://www.thestpeterealestatesite.com/.
We will begin as always with the Absorption Rate (AR), or inventory turn, for the month.
For single family homes in Pinellas County, the AR for April was 6.3%. That's an improvement over March's AR of 5.4%, and in this market I'll take any kind of good news. A year ago in April of 2007, the AR was at 6.7%. Hmmm ... every time I find a little good news I find a reason to not cheer too loudly.
For condos, the AR for April was 4.1% as compared to the March AR of 3.6%. The AR for April of 2007 was 3.8%, so that's a legitimate improvement over the same period last year.
So much for percentages, which can sometimes be misleading. Let's take a look at hard numbers ...
Single Family Homes
Single family home listings are down. This could be because some sellers have just given up and taken their properties off the market in the hope of better times in the future, or they've put them into some kind of rental situation. Or, maybe they just decided to keep the house. Who knows?
For April, 8,757 single family homes were in the MLS system. By comparison, 8,872 were on the market in March. So, listings are down a little. This is actually the lowest number of single family listings since May of 2006 when there were 8,564 in the MLS system.
The good news is that the number of homes sold in April was an improvement! During April there were 549 homes sold in Pinellas County as compared to 481 in March. In fact, home sales have been improving each month during 2008. Still, home sales lag as compared to April of last year when 615 were sold. So, year over year, single family home sales are down.
The median price of single family homes continues to drop. For April, the median was $178,000; for March it was $180,000. When you compare April's median to the same month last year, the median price has dropped 16.2% in Pinellas County. We had a similar median price in November of 2003 when the median for single family homes stood at $177,000. So, does this mean prices for single family homes have rolled back to 2003 levels? Some might say it is beginning to look that way.
Condominiums
At first glance, condo sales seem to have improved. But we need to take a second look to see what is really happening.
The number of condo listings in April stood at 7,698. In March it was 7,915. So, there are fewer condos on the market now than last month.
Condo sales took a nice jump in April as compared to March. In April, 319 condos were sold in Pinellas County as compared to 282 in March. But don't start saying the condo problem has been solved. It's not.
If you look at sales of condos in April of 2007, you will find that 355 condos were sold during that month. So, year over year, the number of condo sales are down. Forget about the AR which shows an improvement; the hard numbers show that condo sales are down compared to the same period last year.
What about the price of condos? The median price continues to fall and for April '08 was down to $172,000; in March it was $177,900. That's a $5,900 drop in median price in 30 days. That's pretty bad news if you're a condo owner trying to sell for top dollar.
Here's what it all adds up to: Listing inventory today is down 2,000 units compared to April 2007, and residential unit sales (homes + condos) are down by 102 units April '07 to April '08. If you were to look at things from a bit longer perspective, in April 2008 there were a total of 868 properties sold; in April of 2005 there were 2,215 properties sold in 30 days. Quite a difference.
If you're a seller there is some good news here. Fewer listings on the market means a little less competition for buyer attention. That's good for sellers, but bad for buyers. For buyers, fewer properties on the market means your choices are a bit more limited today and your ability to negotiate may be just a bit weaker since sellers know you don't have quite as many buying choices as you did a year ago. It's still a strong buyer's market, but perhaps not quite as muscular as it was a year ago.
For more information on real estate in Pinellas County, visit my website at http://www.thestpeterealestatesite.com/.
-30-
posted by Terry Ward at 3:57 AM
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