On Friday I woke up to this leading story in the Poughkeepsie Journal , "Dutchess home prices edge higher." I knew then that I would be hearing from some of my sellers; sure enough, before the day ended I received the calls. Since I had the article readily available I reviewed the entire article with them. The article pointed out that there was an uptick in the average price for December to $412,119 - a 7.6 percent gain over December 05. I told them that this was merely an average and this could be as a result of more higher end homes selling, and I prefer to look at the raw data to get the true picture. The market overall has not seen the substantial gains of 2004 and 2005 but is more in line with previously normal market conditions. In the article it was also mentioned that the sale volume was off and the present inventory was higher than the past 2 years.
My questions to my sellers were: what have you noticed about the market ? Are your neighbors with listed properties increasing the listing price?, Are these properties selling faster? After careful consideration they concluded that they were actually seeing price reductions, longer days on market and a lot more 'for sale' signs.
I think the market is returning to more normal conditions, which will be a good thing for both buyers and sellers as the inventory will move faster. Thanks to the exceptionally warm weather in the east, buyers are looking although this is traditionally a slow period. I am confident this will be a very good year in real estate.
So buyers keep shopping, interest rates are still relatively low and a good volume of inventory is presently available.
DUTCHESS 2006 REAL ESTATE NUMBERS
CLOSED SALES DOM MEDIAN PRICE AVERAGE
Attached Homes 39 (+21.9%) 103 (+28.8%) $ 225,000 (+3.2%) $ 231,112 (-4.7%)
Detached Homes 175 (-15.9%) 113 (+17.7%) $ 349,900 (+2.2%) $ 412,119(+7.6%
Data obtained from Mid-Hudson Multiple Listing Services.
http://www.jfivehomes.com/
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