Lebanon Township NJ Real Estate 2011 Annual Market Report

    Lebanon Township NJ Real Estate 2011 Annual Market Report

                               by Bob Zorechak - GRI, ABR, e-PRO

Find out the latest real estate market information for Lebanon Township NJ through 2011 in addition to a look back at the years in between to 2005. See what the trends are indicating and what is next for the Lebanon Township NJ real estate market. If you are considering buying and or selling a home in 2012 in Lebanon Township NJ, this valuable annual market report is an absolute must read.

Attention... all residential real estate is local! Not everything you read about online, in the papers and hear through major media outlets about the housing market is correct or relevant, especially when information is presented on a "national" or "regional" basis. There are many factors that make up the differences in local real estate markets, even from town to town and especially in a state like New Jersey with its inordinate amount of municipalities making it a challenge for some to drill down and obtain the correct market value of any given home. This is why it is important for both buyers and sellers to start with the latest "local" market data before they make any real estate decisions.

As you can see from the chart above the volume of Listings in Lebanon Township has been trending slightly downward in 4 out of the past 5 years with Closed Sales remaining relatively flat resulting in an otherwise weak local market. Inventory, which was abnormally high to begin with, has risen modestly by 11% from this same time last year up from 14.2 to 15.8 months, which is a step in the wrong direction.

Simply stated, "inventory" represents the number of homes currently available or For Sale in a given market, or in this case a specific town. This means that with all things remaining equal, at the current rate of sales, it will take approximately 16 months to sell all of Lebanon Township's current inventory. This figure indicates that Lebanon Township, like many of the surrounding towns is experiencing what we call a strong "Buyer's Market" and will remain so for at least the short term. A Buyer's Market is considered to be a market with an inventory of 7 or more months worth of homes to sell at any given time.

With more homes to choose from, not to mention record low interest rates and low prices, things remain very advantageous to buyers right now. A "Balanced" or normal market is considered to have 5 to 6 months worth of inventory with no distinct advantage to either Buyers or Sellers.

The chart above indicates a steadily declining trend in the Sale Price of homes in Lebanon Township NJ over the past 6 years. This is primarily due to two factors: an overall weak economy, which has a direct affect on the housing market along with Sellers refusing to price their homes close to their market value from the very beginning and then compounding the situation by not reducing their price in a timely manner. This scenario causes inventory to go up, and the listings to become "stale" because they are on the market much longer than the norm, resulting in a stagnant local market condition like the one we are currently experiencing.

Based on the excess amount of inventory, I would expect to see prices in Lebanon Township continue to decline at least for the short term until some of the older inventory is finally sold off or withdrawn from the market.

What Does the Market Hold for 2012?

Follow the link below to find out in addition to reading the rest of this Lebanon Township 2011 Annual Market Report:

Lebanon Township 2011 Annual Market Report

For more information on Lebanon Township including the school system, follow this link:

All you need to know about Lebanon Township NJ