April & May Real Estate Sales: Lots of Volume
I didn't bother to write a sales update for April because the newspapers seemed to be spreading a lot of ink letting everybody know that real estate sales volume in Pinellas County and the entire Tampa Bay area was pretty darn good. Why should I repeat what they are writing?
However, the paper does not seem to have gotten out the word that May was a fairly good month as well.
The Absorption Rate (AR) for May for single family homes was 15.3% as compared to April's 15.4%. See what I mean? Pretty close. For condos, the AR for May was 11.9% as compared to April's 13.2%. That's pretty close, too!
Here's the thing you need to keep in mind: these are measurements of VOLUME. If you examine the VALUE of the homes and condos being sold you will see that there are a lot of sales of properties priced under $200,000 and that 64% of the sales are to cash buyers.
So, what does that mean? Simply this. Most of these sales are being made to investors. The tip off? What's getting sold are a lot of lower priced homes -- probably short sales and foreclosures -- and they are being purchased as cash investments. What's not selling so well? Why, all those higher priced properties. The percentage of properties priced above $300,000 falls off significantly with each incremental increase in price. So, if you've got a luxury home on the beach or golf course and you keep reading about how sales have gotten red hot in Pinellas County, it's probably very frustrating for you just to open the pages of the newspaper because your property remains unsold. By the way, there is a solution to your problem: Lower The Price!
Single Family Homes
In May, there were 4,916 single family homes listed in the MLS. Of those, 754 were sold during May. That's pretty good. The median selling price was $117,000. That is a 15.7% drop in price compared to May of 2010. See what I mean ... good volume but prices continue to slide downward.
Condominiums
There were 4,720 condos in the MLS system for May, and 562 condos were sold that month. Condo sellers have to feel good about that. I mean, back in 2009 we had months where fewer than 200 condos sold. So, condo volume is headed upward. Condo prices, however, are still headed downward. The median condo price for May was $79,400 as compared to $118,800 for May of last year. That's a drop of 33.2%.
So what we're seeing in Pinellas County is good activity among cash investors, a reduction in listing inventory, and probably some frustration among sellers of luxury homes. All in all, however, I think things are looking up. Remember, we have to sell off this inventory of distressed property before we can breathe some real life into the real estate markets. So, keep your chin up!
-30-
However, the paper does not seem to have gotten out the word that May was a fairly good month as well.
The Absorption Rate (AR) for May for single family homes was 15.3% as compared to April's 15.4%. See what I mean? Pretty close. For condos, the AR for May was 11.9% as compared to April's 13.2%. That's pretty close, too!
Here's the thing you need to keep in mind: these are measurements of VOLUME. If you examine the VALUE of the homes and condos being sold you will see that there are a lot of sales of properties priced under $200,000 and that 64% of the sales are to cash buyers.
So, what does that mean? Simply this. Most of these sales are being made to investors. The tip off? What's getting sold are a lot of lower priced homes -- probably short sales and foreclosures -- and they are being purchased as cash investments. What's not selling so well? Why, all those higher priced properties. The percentage of properties priced above $300,000 falls off significantly with each incremental increase in price. So, if you've got a luxury home on the beach or golf course and you keep reading about how sales have gotten red hot in Pinellas County, it's probably very frustrating for you just to open the pages of the newspaper because your property remains unsold. By the way, there is a solution to your problem: Lower The Price!
Single Family Homes
In May, there were 4,916 single family homes listed in the MLS. Of those, 754 were sold during May. That's pretty good. The median selling price was $117,000. That is a 15.7% drop in price compared to May of 2010. See what I mean ... good volume but prices continue to slide downward.
Condominiums
There were 4,720 condos in the MLS system for May, and 562 condos were sold that month. Condo sellers have to feel good about that. I mean, back in 2009 we had months where fewer than 200 condos sold. So, condo volume is headed upward. Condo prices, however, are still headed downward. The median condo price for May was $79,400 as compared to $118,800 for May of last year. That's a drop of 33.2%.
So what we're seeing in Pinellas County is good activity among cash investors, a reduction in listing inventory, and probably some frustration among sellers of luxury homes. All in all, however, I think things are looking up. Remember, we have to sell off this inventory of distressed property before we can breathe some real life into the real estate markets. So, keep your chin up!
-30-
posted by Terry Ward at 6:51 AM
1 Comments:
Wow! Terry! Great article! I hope other people (not just us Realtors) out there are reading your blogs! You make such good sense of all those numbers! Keep it up!
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