Why would having 5 lot sales shake the market a bit?
When a market goes south, the first to slow and then come to a complete halt is lot sales. At this point, in our market, it makes zero financial sense to buy a lot and build on it; as, I can could give you a $200,000 lot for free for you to build on, and I could still find a comparable house that is about a year old that is substantially cheaper than the construction costs alone. Thus, that is why lot sales go to zero.
In my farm area, there are bit over 100 lots that are on the market, some on the MLS and some not. In the past 9 months, there have been zero sales. In the past 4 weeks there have been 5 contracts with 4 closings.....with prices from $100k to $1.7mm. Thus, there are 5 people who could care less about the financial decision as they want to build what they want despite that fact that it does not make financial sense whatsoever.
This is usually a major sign that there is a new shift in the market; or, it could be merely a fluke. The fact that there are 5 in such a short period of time is eye opening. Though I still think we are in the middle of a bump in the market, this may be a sign that I am wrong and that a true recovery in our market may be forthcoming much quicker than anticipated.
We saw this exact same thing occur in 2004 after our recession in Austin from 2001 to 2004. Let's see what happens in the next coming months. Cautiously excited........
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