February Was Flat
Some years ago, those of us in the real estate business in Florida and especially in the Tampa Bay area, used to really look forward to the winter months of January, February and March. Why? Because that was "the season". "Winter Visitors" often became "Winter Buyers" and real estate sales always took a hefty jump when the "snowbirds" arrived. It was great!
Well, times have changed. This winter's buying season is far short of what it used to be "back in the day" and the unseasonable El Nino weather has not helped one little bit.
Let's take a look at how we fared in February by first checking out the Absorption Rate (AR). The AR, as you know, is calculated by dividing the number of units sold in a month by the total number of listings in the MLS system.
For February, the AR for single family homes was 7.9 percent as compared to January's 6.8 percent. That's an improvement, but nothing to really brag about.
Condos seemed to do a little better. The AR for condos in February was 6.6 percent; up from January's 5.7 percent figure. Actually, that's a pretty good increase as you will see once we look at the raw number of sales.
Single Family Home Sales
During February, the MLS system had a total of 6,346 single family homes listed for sale. In January there were 6,399 -- virtually the same number. Sales of single family homes did jump up a little in February as compared to January. In February there were 502 single family homes sold in Pinellas County while in January the sales figure was 438. That's a nice little jump and explains the upward movement in the AR for February.
By the way, just so you will remember it, in February of 2007 there were 11,003 single family homes in the MLS. Ahhh, the good ol' days!
The median price for homes in February 2010 was $130,000. In February 2009 it was $139,900. That's a drop of 7.1 percent in twelve months.
Keep this in mind as well: in October 2005, the median price for a single family home in Pinellas County was $276,000. And yes, if you bought then you probably are underwater now.
Condominium Sales
In February, there were 5,505 condos listed for sale in the MLS. In January, there were 5,503 listed. A net gain of 2 listings.
Condo sales, on the other hand, show some real improvement. There were 365 condos sold in February as compared to January's 312. So, that explains the jump in AR for condos.
The median price for condos continued to fall as compared to last year. In February 2010, the median price was $110,000; in February 2009 it was $117,500. That's a drop in median price of 6.4 percent for the year just ended.
Now, let's all get ready for some big improvements in condo sales for March. They just sold about 50 or 60 units downtown at The Signature through an auction. That's going to make March's figures look really great, but don't be fooled by it. It will probably raise the AR and the median price for condos by quite a bit.
Just in case anyone out there is keeping track of such things -- and let's hope you have more to do in life than keep track of this kind of stuff -- there are now 11,851 properties for sale in the Pinellas MLS. In February of 2007 there were 18,242 properties for sale.
Now you might say that's really great, we're cutting down the inventory and that should help bring prices back. Malarkey.
Sure, real estate agents have sold quite a bit of property in the last three years, but an awful lot of this decrease in inventory is the result of sellers who have simply given up and taken their property off the market or found renters for them.
Also, keep in mind that mortgage bankers have been holding off the release of a lot of foreclosed properties in order to keep from flooding the market and driving prices even lower. This so-called "ghost inventory" will have to be disposed of before we can start to talk about a true real estate recovery.
Still in all, the recovery starts with the very next sale. So good luck and happy selling!
-30-
Well, times have changed. This winter's buying season is far short of what it used to be "back in the day" and the unseasonable El Nino weather has not helped one little bit.
Let's take a look at how we fared in February by first checking out the Absorption Rate (AR). The AR, as you know, is calculated by dividing the number of units sold in a month by the total number of listings in the MLS system.
For February, the AR for single family homes was 7.9 percent as compared to January's 6.8 percent. That's an improvement, but nothing to really brag about.
Condos seemed to do a little better. The AR for condos in February was 6.6 percent; up from January's 5.7 percent figure. Actually, that's a pretty good increase as you will see once we look at the raw number of sales.
Single Family Home Sales
During February, the MLS system had a total of 6,346 single family homes listed for sale. In January there were 6,399 -- virtually the same number. Sales of single family homes did jump up a little in February as compared to January. In February there were 502 single family homes sold in Pinellas County while in January the sales figure was 438. That's a nice little jump and explains the upward movement in the AR for February.
By the way, just so you will remember it, in February of 2007 there were 11,003 single family homes in the MLS. Ahhh, the good ol' days!
The median price for homes in February 2010 was $130,000. In February 2009 it was $139,900. That's a drop of 7.1 percent in twelve months.
Keep this in mind as well: in October 2005, the median price for a single family home in Pinellas County was $276,000. And yes, if you bought then you probably are underwater now.
Condominium Sales
In February, there were 5,505 condos listed for sale in the MLS. In January, there were 5,503 listed. A net gain of 2 listings.
Condo sales, on the other hand, show some real improvement. There were 365 condos sold in February as compared to January's 312. So, that explains the jump in AR for condos.
The median price for condos continued to fall as compared to last year. In February 2010, the median price was $110,000; in February 2009 it was $117,500. That's a drop in median price of 6.4 percent for the year just ended.
Now, let's all get ready for some big improvements in condo sales for March. They just sold about 50 or 60 units downtown at The Signature through an auction. That's going to make March's figures look really great, but don't be fooled by it. It will probably raise the AR and the median price for condos by quite a bit.
Just in case anyone out there is keeping track of such things -- and let's hope you have more to do in life than keep track of this kind of stuff -- there are now 11,851 properties for sale in the Pinellas MLS. In February of 2007 there were 18,242 properties for sale.
Now you might say that's really great, we're cutting down the inventory and that should help bring prices back. Malarkey.
Sure, real estate agents have sold quite a bit of property in the last three years, but an awful lot of this decrease in inventory is the result of sellers who have simply given up and taken their property off the market or found renters for them.
Also, keep in mind that mortgage bankers have been holding off the release of a lot of foreclosed properties in order to keep from flooding the market and driving prices even lower. This so-called "ghost inventory" will have to be disposed of before we can start to talk about a true real estate recovery.
Still in all, the recovery starts with the very next sale. So good luck and happy selling!
-30-
posted by Terry Ward at 10:19 AM
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