The last post on pricing, sales activity, and overall trends in Delaware County, PA raised the question of whether we were seeing the same trends region wide.
Short answer: Yes.
In New Castle County, Delaware, there were $74 Million dollars worth of properties sold in November consisting of 302 properties with an average price of $245,000 per the TrendMLS system market statistics. Compared to earlier sales:
Nov sales were down 38% from the 2008 avg sales thru Oct
Nov sales were down 51% from the 2007 average sales/month
Nov sales were down 69% from peak sales rate in June 2006
We saw close to the same sales rate($76 Million) in January 2008. Prior to this, you would need to go back to Feb 2002 to see a lower sales volume.
On a more local level, if you look at the Hockessin/Centreville/Greenville area, there are currently160 homes on the market with an average monthly sales rate of 18 units (dropped to 14 in November). At this monthly rate, it will take over 8 months to sell out of the current inventory - assuming we recover toward the monthly average sales rate.
In Chester County, PA, total sales were $101 Million consisting of 295 units with an average price of $344,000. Compared to earlier sales:
Nov sales were down 34% from the 2008 average thru Oct
Nov sales were down 45% from the 2007 average
Nov sales were down 69% from the June 2005 peak.
Echoing New Castle County, sales were actually lower in January of this year at $95 Million. Prior to January, we last saw this sales volume in February 2001.
Bottom line: We do seem to be seeing the same trends throughout the region.
Again, once financing issues resolve themselves and people can have some confidence on the future rates and programs, we could see a rapid build up in activity as the market responds to pent up demand. Both the time to resolve the financing issues and the increase/decrease in inventory on the market will dictate the direction of prices once sales pick up, but at this point pricing seems to be holding up reasonably well.
As I mentioned earlier, if you are thinking of buying or selling in the near term, now is the time to get ready. I would expect the new administration to act fairly quickly once in office and you should be prepared to take advantage of any new opportunities as they appear.
As always, if you need any additional information or have any comments, please feel free to contact me anytime.
(All statistics from TrendMLS Market Statistics and believed accurate but not guaranteed)
Comments(0)