Early last week NAR released the national numbers for July sales. Overall sales saw a large drop 27% from June and 25% year-over-year from July 2009. While the pundits debate whether the sharp drop in overall sales was a meaningful indicator of market activity or just a product of the expiration of the home-buyer tax credit and artificially time-shifted demand, they all seem to have missed the fact that while overall sales were sharply down, sales in the $1M+ price segment were UP in every region across the country and more than 6% nationally:
"Luxury homebuyers have been buying this summer," said Laurie Moore-Moore, CEO of The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing (ILHM). "After waiting in the wings, many affluent buyers spent the summer shopping for value and snapping up trophy properties."
Statistics would indicate that she's right. According to The National Association of Realtors (NAR), for 2009 million-dollar and above home sales were just 1.2% of total sales or about 61,500 sales nationally. In July 2010, million dollar plus market share was up to 1.9%. While sales of homes in the $500,000 and above range rose dramatically in June, the million-dollar-plus market segment was the only price range in July showing positive growth compared to last year. "The mix of what is selling has shifted in favor of homes priced at $750,000 and above," added Moore-Moore.
It is likely that the 0.7% increase in the national median sale price for July was largely function of this increase sales at the upper end as opposed to growing price strength in the lower-priced segments of the market.
Bottom line:
The luxury segment is outperforming the market overall, and this is a good news story that needs to be told!
Steve Eckhardt, Broker, Luxury Real Estate Professional
Contact me at (813) 765-1182
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