After generating the April Market Condition Report for the Sam Hughes neighborhood, I noticed some interesting trends in the past year:

• Average listing price is down from the same time last year, but the actual sales price is a MUCH higher percentage than a year ago.
• Time on market is remarkably shorter than a year ago.
• Absorption rate has come back - exceeding the rate of last year, as we head into our "Summer Buying Season"

Take a look:

What does it mean?  Well, comparing the national trend with the Sam Hughes market conditions, you can see a parallel:

1. Homes last year were generally priced higher than buyers were willing to pay...so they stayed on the market longer.  Sellers had to "settle" for a significantly lower price to get their property sold.
2. As the listing average price went down, so did days on market...and the listing/selling price ratio went back up.
3. Selling activity slowed way down during the winter (which is normal in the Tucson real estate market to some extent), which reflects in the month supply of inventory on hand going up.  Another way to look at it could be:  as economic news got bad, confidence was down & buyers held back from making the decision to purchase.
4. When the news started looking a little better and interest rates went down and buyers are starting to get back into the market.

What anomalies did you spot in the statistics above?

• Numbers of properties on the market at any one time stayed pretty much the same in the past year.
• There is a disparity in pricing during the middle period - Sam Hughes has a very wide range of home sizes, and the smaller ones were the ones that sold during the winter, generally.
  

Conclusions?

• Sellers realized that asking prices were unrealistic & had to come down after watching other properties sit and sit on the market.
• Buyers realizing that value & opportunity don't always come at the same time are starting to take advantage of the situation.

If you are someone who is interested in seizing the opportunity in today's real estate market, lets talk about the values we can find together.  Analysis is a strength of mine - put it to work for your benefit.