March Real Estate Sales Looked Pretty Good!
I'm a little late getting this month's report out to everyone, so for some of you this may be "old news". If so, I'm sorry ... I had some other things to get done in the last week or two.
March looks to have been a pretty good month in the world of real estate in Pinellas County. Not great, but pretty good and certainly improving.
Let's start with the Absorption Rate (AR) which, as you know by now, is calculated by dividing the number of units sold during the month by the total number of listings in the Multiple Listing Service.
For single family homes, the AR for March jumped to 11.5% versus February's AR of 7.9%. For condo's, the AR for March was 9.5% versus February's 6.6%.
Some people have asked me recently what the AR is and what it means to them as sellers. Well, the AR is actually the inventory turn. It tells you how long it takes, on average, to sell a property. For example, this months single family AR is 11.5% and February's was 7.9%. Since the AR is expressed as a percentage, all you have to do is divide it into 100 and that gives you the number of months of inventory on the market. For March, the AR was 11.5% so that means there was 8.7 months of inventory on the market. The larger the AR, the faster homes are selling (at least, theoretically).
Single family listings remained about the same in March as they were in February. In March, there were 6,316 single family homes on the market in Pinellas County versus February's 6,346. A difference of only 30 properties.
The big jump, and the reason we have such a big increase in the AR, is because during March 727 single family homes were sold. In February, only 502 were sold. That's a nice increase and it is what we want to see. Of course, some of this is certainly due to the home buyer's incentive program which will end on the last day of April. So, I think buyers were trying to take advantage of this money-saving government program. We'll see how sales fare once the program ends.
The median price for March dropped a little compared to March of 2009. The March 2010 median was $138,500 as compared to $140,000 for the same period last year. That's a drop in median price of only 1.1% and I continue to see more price stability entering the local single family home market.
For condominiums, there were 5,526 units listed for sale in the MLS system for March as compared to 5,505 for February. Again, a difference of only 21 units. But once again, the important number is that condo sales in March were 523 units sold as compared to February's 365 units sold. As with single family homes, I think condo volume is related to the coming end of government incentives.
The median price for condos is still taking it on the chin. In March 2010, the median was $110,000 compared to March 2009's median price of $125,000. That's a drop of 12% for the two time periods. Condo prices might be starting to show more stability, however, as the median for both February and March 2010 was $110,000. We'll just have to wait and see where condo prices move during the coming months.
My sources tell me that even though mortgage interest rates now are hovering at near historically low figures, we might start to see some upward pressure on them in the coming months. Perhaps buyers would be well advised to lock in rates now as best they can, and get that "dream home" under contract soon.
See you soon!
-30-
March looks to have been a pretty good month in the world of real estate in Pinellas County. Not great, but pretty good and certainly improving.
Let's start with the Absorption Rate (AR) which, as you know by now, is calculated by dividing the number of units sold during the month by the total number of listings in the Multiple Listing Service.
For single family homes, the AR for March jumped to 11.5% versus February's AR of 7.9%. For condo's, the AR for March was 9.5% versus February's 6.6%.
Some people have asked me recently what the AR is and what it means to them as sellers. Well, the AR is actually the inventory turn. It tells you how long it takes, on average, to sell a property. For example, this months single family AR is 11.5% and February's was 7.9%. Since the AR is expressed as a percentage, all you have to do is divide it into 100 and that gives you the number of months of inventory on the market. For March, the AR was 11.5% so that means there was 8.7 months of inventory on the market. The larger the AR, the faster homes are selling (at least, theoretically).
Single family listings remained about the same in March as they were in February. In March, there were 6,316 single family homes on the market in Pinellas County versus February's 6,346. A difference of only 30 properties.
The big jump, and the reason we have such a big increase in the AR, is because during March 727 single family homes were sold. In February, only 502 were sold. That's a nice increase and it is what we want to see. Of course, some of this is certainly due to the home buyer's incentive program which will end on the last day of April. So, I think buyers were trying to take advantage of this money-saving government program. We'll see how sales fare once the program ends.
The median price for March dropped a little compared to March of 2009. The March 2010 median was $138,500 as compared to $140,000 for the same period last year. That's a drop in median price of only 1.1% and I continue to see more price stability entering the local single family home market.
For condominiums, there were 5,526 units listed for sale in the MLS system for March as compared to 5,505 for February. Again, a difference of only 21 units. But once again, the important number is that condo sales in March were 523 units sold as compared to February's 365 units sold. As with single family homes, I think condo volume is related to the coming end of government incentives.
The median price for condos is still taking it on the chin. In March 2010, the median was $110,000 compared to March 2009's median price of $125,000. That's a drop of 12% for the two time periods. Condo prices might be starting to show more stability, however, as the median for both February and March 2010 was $110,000. We'll just have to wait and see where condo prices move during the coming months.
My sources tell me that even though mortgage interest rates now are hovering at near historically low figures, we might start to see some upward pressure on them in the coming months. Perhaps buyers would be well advised to lock in rates now as best they can, and get that "dream home" under contract soon.
See you soon!
-30-
posted by Terry Ward at 11:48 AM
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