From the Big House Data Executive Summary:

February 2008 is in the books and the listing pace is down by over a full quarter of the market. That means that there is currently a quarter less new inventory for purchasers to choose from! Depending on your view of the current market, this is either good or, at worst, neutral news for the real estate market as a whole.

Of course, from a seller’s perspective, this is decent news. There is less competition among homes currently for sale. However, the flip side is that sales prices are not rising, on average.

Meanwhile, buyers are still having a field day. Great inventory of properties to choose from, still relatively cheap cost of money…if you are soon to be or already in the market for a new home, this is a great market for you! We will likely not see a buying market as good as this in quite some time.

Timing this market, as a buyer, could be a bad move. Especially considering the rapidly changing interest rates, you could end up making a wash of your next purchase, if you try to time the bottom of the market. We did a post on timing the bottom of the real estate market earlier.

On to the charts!

Average List Price - February 2008

Down nearly 10% from February 2007, the average list price for a property in Washtenaw County was $255,827 for the month of February.

The red, 12 month, moving average trend line shows that the market held to it’s listing averages until about April 2007.  This coincides with the Pfizer buyouts hitting the market in Washtenaw County.  The homes initially began to come on the market in February, the buyouts began to happen almost instantaneously.  When the relocation department took control of many of the listings, dramatic price reductions were seen.  For the impact to be seen in April of 2007 shows there was a significant drop in those few, short months.

Average Sales Price - February 2008

$232,250 was the average sales price for a property in Washtenaw County in February 2008.  This is down 6% from February 2007.

Again, the 12 month moving average trend line shows a similar picture to the average list price..  Around April 2007, the average sales price of property in Washtenaw County began to pick up downward momentum.

Number of Listings vs Sales - February 2008

This is always the fun chart!  This shows the number of listings against the number of closings across the last three years.  It is quite extraordinary to see nearly one third of this market cycle on one page.

Examining the 12 month moving average trend lines, it is encouraging to see the closings trend line begin to come North.  The listings trend line has flattened, if not begun to drop across the last couple of months.