This is part three in the Mother of All Real Estate Reports series featuring charts, graphs and analysis of the Tallahassee real estate market for August of 2010. If you want to review the previous posts, the first blog of real estate graphs can be found here, while the second housing blog is here. Most readers with a strong interest in the real estate market should appreciate this series, as there are many pictures and very few words 
.
New Construction Sees Very Little Activity
When we look at the trend of single family building permits and new construction sales, it is very clear why it is so tough being a home builder these days. Currently, we are seeing about 1/4th as many new homes being built and sold as we did in 2005/2006.
Another way to view this information show the cycles of consumption and glut. Currently, we are selling more homes than we are building, which is a good thing for the Tallahassee real estate market.
New Construction For Condominiums & Townhouses
New construction for “attached” housing is an interesting picture. Condos and townhouses are near 2003 values (blue line below) and the current level of unit sales is way down from the boom (crimson bars below), but not altogether low when looking back over the past 20 years. But I think this is misleading.
The reason that current unit sales numbers does not look low compared to the not-so-recent past is because we just didn’t have much of a condo or townhome market back in the 1990s. As the cost of land has gone up, we saw more and more homes being built on smaller parcels of land, as well as those that are attached. Therefore, I do think this market very well mirrors the single family detached home market.
The existing condo and townhouse sales is also peculiar. The average price continues skyward even as new units are built and sold for amounts far lower. Could this be the downtown Tallahassee condo effect?
Residential Market Snapshot
This next real estate graph is very good at showing past results each year through July. Thanks (most likely) to the First Time Homebuyer program, this year has outperformed last year (the worst year in the 20 year report), but I think this same graph through December is a coin toss between 2009 and 2010, as we will have to finish the year without the stimulus that was in place the same time last year.
The graph below is much like that above, showing single family home sales through July in the Tallahassee real estate market.
And the graph below is much like the 2 above, showing condo and townhouse sales through July as slightly better, but note how the results are not really out of line with historical sales.
Check back here tomorrow where we will finish up our Mother Of All Real Estate Reports v. II series with more charts, graphs, and analysis of the Tallahassee real estate market.
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