As hinted at in last month's Jasper Georgia home sales report, it appeared possible that we would see a slight improvement in the number of houses placed under contract of sale in Pickens County for April 2009.  Sure enough, both in prior month AND year-on-year comparisons, April '09 performed better than both.  This is definitely a positive sign, but still a way to go before announcing a major turn around.

A total of 26 homes* were entered as either pending / contingency sales or closed transactions, which is a significant improvement over March '09 numbers and a 30% increase in sales over April 2008!  Still trailing 2007 posted data by more than 25%, but an improvement is an improvement and I'll take it.

Now for the bad news . . .

The average list-to-sale price of those transactions that have already closed dropped down to just over 90.5% . . . almost a 10% hit on properties that are often already listed at a reduced price! This may change slightly once all closings are accounted for, hopefully coming in a little higher, but is something to watch. 

Likewise, average sale price in Pickens County GA for transactions already closed (10) is only $169,280, and the remaining 16 under contract have an average list price of only $187,598, suggesting that average sale price for April 09, despite a pick up in sales numbers, will still come in lower than last year's average sale of $189,950.

The obvious factor in all this, one that pops up whenever we discuss falling prices, is the ongoing issue of short sales and foreclosures in Jasper GA.  Twelve of the 26 homes placed under contract were listed as foreclosures or bank owned "REO" properties. Forty-six percent! By comparison, sales of lender owned foreclosure houses in April 2007 & 2008 came in at only 3 & 4, respectively. These low-priced properties likely account for both the drop in average sale price, and our increased sales numbers, as some buyers are jumping into the market to snatch up the best deals (a trend not restricted to the local market).

Inventory continues to inch upward toward 550 homes for sale in Pickens County.  Approximately 7% of these are foreclosed homes, and that number is likely to continue to climb as sales aren't keeping up with repossessions.

Back to some good news . . .

Early data for May indicates that the positive move in April's numbers are likely to be repeated for this month.  I look forward to being able to provide more encouraging data in next month's post (unless my monthly report is preempted by someone else before I get to it, but hey, good news is hard to contain!).

* As reported in FMLS listing service.