WILMINGTON NC REAL ESTATE DATA UPDATE - APRIL 2010

Listing Inventory
In April we saw an increase in listing inventory of 43 units. We are about 137 units over May 2009. We have 5,620 single family homes for sale in our MLS. The average list price of $385,600 is up by $4,625 from last month. The average list price has increased by 3.8% from February 2010. If you look back over the last three years you will see our low point in listing inventory to be about Dec/Jan time frame.

Monthly Average Sold Price
Our monthly average sold price is up by .8% from last month and up 3.5% from April 2009. Our average sold price is up by $1,728 from last month. April average sold price ($223,344) shows a decrease of 4.7% from year end 2009. Our average sold price is down 8.9% from April 2008.
Monthly Sold Units
The number of sold homes is up 20.7% from last month and up 37.6% from April 2009 and we are 5.6% over April 2008. April saw an increase of 124 sold homes over April 2009. This is our eighth monthly increase in year over year sold homes since September 2005. You can notice that all of our big dips seem to occur on or about December. I believe we will continue to see the next couple of months with unit sales over and above the previous year. No doubt in my mind the First Time Homebuyers Tax Credit has contributed to this increase in sales units and I would anticipate it to continue until the June 30th deadline.
Average Sold Price Year to Date
Year over year our year to date numbers have dipped a little.
2003 year end average sale price $ 186,137
2004 year end average sale price $ 210,048
2005 year end average sale price $ 254,080
2006 year end average sale price $ 264,498
2007 year end average sale price $ 273,408
2008 year end average sale price $256,498
2009 year end average sale price $234,379
While our current year to date numbers are lower than Year End 2009 they do show promising signs that our sales are on the upswing. The first four months of 2010 has a 257 sold unit gain over first four months of 2009. The average sales price is 1.3% higher for the first four months of 2010 than the first four months of 2009. Our median sales price is just 10.0% behind 2008 and 1.6% behind 2009.
Rolling 12 months
Another bright spot is the rolling 12 month numbers. When we look at May 1st, 2009 to April 30st, 2010 we have 4,617 sold units and when we compare May 1st, 2008 to April 30st, 2009 we have a 337 unit gain (4,280 sold units). When we look at the same rolling 12 months for average sold price we see that we are only down by 5.9%. So the dates of 5/1/2009 to 4/30/2010 we have an average sold price of $234,406 while from 5/1/2008 to 4/30/2009 we had an average sold price $249,013.
Median Sold Price
Our Median sold price is up 7.3% from last month, about $184,000. While we have not dipped as low as the National Median we seem to have turned the corner while the national median is showing a slight increase. I would anticipate over the next couple of months to see this median increase.
Pending
Pending Sales - A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not yet closed. Sales are typically finalized within one to two months from signing. I look at the total pending units on a regular basis and this is how they chart out. We saw our pending index turn back to its upward climb about the first week in January. Over the month of April we saw an 11.9% increase and we are 15.8% ahead of 2009 this time. In 2009 our index only hit the 900 unit range a couple of times. As I write this we are at 984 units that are pending right now.
Market Absorption rate - The number of homes sold in April, 454 divided by the current listing inventory, 5,620 gives us a 12.3 month supply of single family homes. This improved by 3 months from last month and moving in the right direction. With rates where they are and plenty of inventory; we can get this number down.
List to Sold price ratio - the average list price of the sold properties is $235,959 and the average sold price is $223,343 for April which gives us a 94.7% list to sold price ratio - a increase of .7% from last month. We have now managed to stay under 95% for over a year, but this is the closest we have come to 95% list to sold ratio.
Seller Concessions - We had 30.0% of sold properties report a sales concession for April, an increase of 3.0%. We want this number to go lower.
Days on Market - The average days on market for the sold properties is now at 123 for April. That is almost 5 + months to keep a property on the market. Only 17.8% of the properties were placed under contract in less than 15 days for the month of April.

Supplied by David Flory of Cunningham Mortgage

Obtained from the Wilmington MLS and the Wilmington Board Of REALTORS. Posted by WELCOMEtotheBEACH