July Real Estate Sales Bring More Bad News
We have learned two important things during July. First, low mortgage interest rates don't mean much when unemployment is soaring. And second, without the first time buyer program we aren't going to sell as many homes.
How do we know?
Just look at the Absorption Rate (AR) for July as compared to June. In July, the AR for single family homes fell to 8.3% as compared to June's 12.4%. That's a big drop, a very big drop.
For condos, similar bad news. The AR for July fell to 6.1% from June's 7.9%. Pretty sorry.
I blame the economy in general. There's just too much economic bad news and it's discouraging people from buying homes and condos.
For single family homes, the inventory of homes available in the MLS jumped in July to 6,675 homes as compared to June's 6,479. So, more homes are on the market and that means home sellers have more competition to deal with. To top off that bad news, sales dropped like a big rock down a deep well. In June, some 802 single family homes were sold. In July, only 555 homes managed to close. Big drop.
On top of all that, it looks like the median price is stuck in neutral. The median price for July 2010 was the same as the median price for July of 2009 -- $140,000. To be honest, the median price has been staying pretty much within a few thousand dollars from month to month for over a year now. I don't know if that means we've "bottomed-out", but it sure looks like these prices have become fairly stable for the last year or so in Pinellas County. Perhaps that's good news -- at least the market has stabilized for the time being.
Condo statistics for July resemble single family home stats.
The number of listed condos increased in July to 5,482 as compared to June's listings of 5,344. So, there are more condos on the market making for more competition for all condo sellers. The number of condos sold in July fell to 335 units as compared to June's 424 sales.
Unlike the median price for homes, condo prices continue to fall. In July 2010, the median price in Pinellas County was $110,000; in July 2009, it was $128,000. That's a drop in median price of 14.1% in the last year. Not good if you're trying to sell a condo.
So, that's it. July was not such a good month for real estate. We can only hope that things will pick up soon.
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How do we know?
Just look at the Absorption Rate (AR) for July as compared to June. In July, the AR for single family homes fell to 8.3% as compared to June's 12.4%. That's a big drop, a very big drop.
For condos, similar bad news. The AR for July fell to 6.1% from June's 7.9%. Pretty sorry.
I blame the economy in general. There's just too much economic bad news and it's discouraging people from buying homes and condos.
For single family homes, the inventory of homes available in the MLS jumped in July to 6,675 homes as compared to June's 6,479. So, more homes are on the market and that means home sellers have more competition to deal with. To top off that bad news, sales dropped like a big rock down a deep well. In June, some 802 single family homes were sold. In July, only 555 homes managed to close. Big drop.
On top of all that, it looks like the median price is stuck in neutral. The median price for July 2010 was the same as the median price for July of 2009 -- $140,000. To be honest, the median price has been staying pretty much within a few thousand dollars from month to month for over a year now. I don't know if that means we've "bottomed-out", but it sure looks like these prices have become fairly stable for the last year or so in Pinellas County. Perhaps that's good news -- at least the market has stabilized for the time being.
Condo statistics for July resemble single family home stats.
The number of listed condos increased in July to 5,482 as compared to June's listings of 5,344. So, there are more condos on the market making for more competition for all condo sellers. The number of condos sold in July fell to 335 units as compared to June's 424 sales.
Unlike the median price for homes, condo prices continue to fall. In July 2010, the median price in Pinellas County was $110,000; in July 2009, it was $128,000. That's a drop in median price of 14.1% in the last year. Not good if you're trying to sell a condo.
So, that's it. July was not such a good month for real estate. We can only hope that things will pick up soon.
-30-
posted by Terry Ward at 7:45 AM
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