Yesterday, I finally got around to evaluating the Sun City Market by housing type. ie Single Family vs Condominium. I used the last six weeks of MLS data for this. (9/1/09-10/14/09)

I have long felt that the single family home is more desirable to most of the buyers who come to Sun City, but have never done the analysis required to prove it.

As you can see from the following spreadsheet, homes sell one third faster than condos. The lesson, if you are a buyer, and want to buy a home, you must make up your mind quickly as more snowbirds will be here competing with you. If you are a seller, be patient.

The market ratio is a new metric I am using. A ratio less than 20 indicates a buyers market. A ratio of 20-30 indicates a balanced market. 30 or more is a sellers market. As you can see, the single family home segment is very close to a buyers market now, but the condominium segment is still a strong buyers market.