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What's Taking Place in Your Real Estate Market?

I am curious if there is any quality signs in anyone's real estate market. Increase in prices would be a major plus. Are you seeing any trends? I know in many markets sales are increasing, but the average price is still declining. That means the sales are lead by distressed properties. In Atlanta both price and sales are still in decline. I posted a few this week about the Atlanta real estate market that discussed our trends. I also noticed in some real estate markets there is a trend that listings are increasing daily. January is an early time to go on the market. In a normal market listings tend to rise with Spring break to coincide wtih selling and closing a home by the time the children finish school for the year. I personally do not think that will be the case this year. My thoughts on this is that sellers want to move their home, and will place it on the market much earlier this year, prior to the spring market. Their reasoning is probably that they will try the higher price at first and then lower it until it sells. In some markets I have seen a substantial increase in new listings in several MLS's this week alone. I would love to hear what is happening in your market. Please include anything you feel is interesting: sales prices, price points, list prices, days on market, number of listings would all be interesting. What is selling and what is not?

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Posted by Jim Crawford ~ Atlanta Real Estate-ABR E-PRO on 01/24/2009 10:43 PM

Comments (20)

Real Estate Markets - What's Happening? in the ActiveRain Channel

real estate market trends, real estate sales, listings, prices, home values, days on market, list prices, average sales prices

Originally posted at: Atlanta Real Estate | Atlanta Housing News for Real Estate: What's Taking Place in Your Real Estate Market?

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20 Comments on What's Taking Place in Your Real Estate Market?

JAN

Hi Jim,

Just a quick tidbit on Delaware, home prices still show declining amounts unfortunately. Growth has been slow. A handful of agents are out of business. In December we had more solds but then the number of solds jumped back down this month. I also heard some scary news from lenders about credit score changes so their has been a lot of turbulance. I am looking forward to a new administration at the White House and hopefully something will shape up ! No one has a crystal ball on when things will improve but it sure would be nice to hear something good for a change!

Just stay positive!

Thanks

Tom Davis

Jim, in Gwinnett County I have seen some price points with lots of very fast Days on Market. I think we are seeing some price capitulation and the deals are getting snapped up. I'm also seeing a deceleration in the sales decreases. I think we can see the bottom from here...

I put offer on two condos this week and both had multiple offers. It has been awhile since I saw that.

JAN

FREE Delaware Homes Search!, $$ Save $$ Find Homes! Delaware Realtor Tom Davis (Harrington ERA,DE Homes For Sale, $$ Save $$ Buy Today !) Thanks for the update. It sounds realistic. We have some agents leaving, and a few offices closing. Prices are coming down, but no collapse.

Lane Bailey - REALTOR & Car Guy (Diamond Dwellings Realty) I agree. I noticed some movement down in prices recently. We wrote a deal recently where the seller will have to come to closing with cash to close. They just want to get on with there life. Also, I have noticed a lot of homes in our FMLS Back on market. Buyers are picky.

Randy L. Prothero - Hawaii REALTOR® (Century 21 Liberty Homes) That is always a great thing! It has been so long....I forgot what they are!

Prices are down....but the strange thing is, when a property is priced just below market, it generates multiple offers!

11% of our sales in Alameda CA last year were foreclosures, in contrast with newspaper reports that 50% of last years sales in the Bay Area (CA) are foreclosures.

So I guess my little island is holding up.

I can only speak to a few areas in which I have buyers right now, but it seems in some zip codes, prices have pretty much stopped falling, and inventory is much lower than it was a few months ago. A couple of buyers from this past summer who decided to "wait" have reappeared and are now worried they waited a little too long to jump in, as there isn't nearly as much to choose from.

At a recent economic conference, an economist at George Mason Univ talked about job growth in this area and projected we should see some improvement in the 2nd half of this year; we are in a unique market, though, with the fed gov providing so many jobs...and we know the govt isn't going to get any smaller over the next few years.

We may just be seeing the normal seasonal pop.... I heard from a friend in CA that sales are up there but they are competing with foreclosures... so prices are 30% down..

Your friend in Charlottesville, VA

Charles McDonald

Pacita C Dimacali, Alameda & Contra Costa CA real estate (Gallagher & Lindsey, Inc. 510 748 1148) Price rules. That is encouraging news.! Thanks!

Susan Haughton Alexandria, VA REALTOR® (Long & Foster REALTORS® Old Town Alexandria) Thank you. It is a mixed bag in many areas. I still believe you are in one of the safest areas in the nation for layoffs. The government doesn't have them. I see your market improving in the second half of this year as the Govt starts to beef up jobs.

Charles McDonald / Your Trusted Broker for Charlottesville Real Estate (RE/MAX Assured Property) Very interesting observations. A lot of agents boast that sales are up, but they neglect to tell you about the prices dropping. That is what I am seeing in many areas. we are down in price, and down in sales. I am even seeing buyers take a break from buying the foreclosures.

JAN

Jim - I have noticed recently that in my market the numbers have stopped declining on the nunber of purchase offers submitted each month - these numbers have consistentlyleveled off compared to the year before or have increased. However, we are an attorney state, so although agents report purchase offer acceptance to our MLS, the transaction still has several stages to it. I also noticed that STILL "closed" sales are significantly down each month. I was trying to see if i could read into a trend when I noticed the # of purchase offers were not declining. But, the only trend I can see here is that many transactions are actually falling through sometime after offer acceptance.

Jim, you know I am constantly talking about the market and my local market here in Northern Bergen County NJ. I see it starting to pick up. I also see some last minute short sales price drops due to foreclosures pending. This to me is a shot at capitulation. Also, I see improvement finally in mortgage money market. The Fed, work is starting to take affect. Let's hope real estate clears some inventory. I think homes are going to sell as the market flushes out.

Richard

JAN

Carol Culkin (Houlihan Lawrence Realty) I am from NY originally in New York City, and held a New York Real Estate license at one time. NY takes a lot longer for the foreclosure process than states taht are non judicial foreclosures. So there could be a major lag in NY while the depth of the market catches up. In Atlanta this is a non judicial state, and a foreclosure could be on the market in 6-8 weeks. This is a hard market to gauge because in areas that have loads of foreclosures, sales are increasing, but prices are declining rapidly because the major concentration of all sales are distressed properties and bargain sales.

Richard Stabile Bergen County New Homes Builder Realtor (REMAX real estate associates) I am starting to look at some trends in real estate and believe that there is a capitulation just ahead. This will pave the way for a full recovery.

JAN

Jim,

The homes that are moving quickly in our market are the ones that are priced to sell, not to negotiate. The sellers that are still pricing their home to give themselves plenty of room to negotiate or are just plain way over market are the ones that really seem to languishing. You can pick out the agents that aren't afraid to have honest discussions with their sellers about pricing right. I actually have buyers that can tell the listing agent by how overpriced the home is! Our DOM average is about 150 days, but homes priced and staged well are often closing in less than 60.

JAN

Jen Olson (First Weber Group Realtors) It is interesting the spread you have for DOM if the home is priced right andappears right. On one recent high end home, we asked the agent why the home seemed over priced by 150K, she said "for negotiations!" My thoughts it would prevent offers because it was so obvious to all. The home has been on the market for a year an a half. As it sits the price keeps dropping.

FEB

Jim, You are right. Homes are selling faster in markets with more foreclosures. I hope things will be improve and that we will soon have a normal market .

GITA BANTWAL, REALTOR BUCKS COUNTY, PA HOMES (ReMax Centre Realtors) From your lips to God's ears. I would like to see this over ASAP!

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