They say a picture speaks a thousand words.  Well, a picture with statistics would speak that much more, I would think.

This graphic shows the present real estate numbers in Miami-Dade County.  They are eye-opening, to say the least.

The light green bar shows the number of homes available (single family, condos, townhouses combined).

Yes, November shows a whopping 41,578.  You can't complain about availability here =)

The dark green bar (that itty, bitty little one - that alone should tell you something!) shows the number of homes sold that month (again single family, condos, townhouses combined).

Notice the trend.  In the last 15 months, the homes available for sale has steadily increased while the number of homes sold has steadily decreased.  The gap is bigger each month. 

In November there were 725 sales county-wide.   The disparity between For Sale and Sold is staggering.  It means we have over 57 months' worth of inventory for sale, as shown in the graphic below.

This is a sobering number.  A somewhat balanced market has between 6-10 month's worth of inventory.  A Seller's Market is considered less than 6 months worth of inventory.  We have been in a Buyer's market for at least the last 15 months as evidenced by the numbers above. 

If you're a seller, it should make you want to compete in the best way available: pricing. 

No one can say sales are not taking place.  There were 725 of them last month. 

If you want your home to be one of the ones sold this month make sure it's priced right.  Today's buyer has way too many choices to waste his time and pre-qual letter on a home whose owner is being unrealistic with the asking price.

© December 2007 Maggie Dokic, Broker-Associate