Eastern Shore first quarter home sales best since 2007

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

— John F. Kennedy

We’ve been taught that change is good, that fondly reminiscing about the old days is non-productive at best and un-hip at worst.

But gasoline for $2.49 a gallon and milk at even less still sounds appealing. How about homeowners’ insurance for under $2,000 a year? And that was just a couple of years ago.

Change is happening faster and faster. To illustrate: A high school counselor told me that our sons’ generation is projected to change careers – not just jobs – eight times in their lifetimes. Our sons are 20 … no wonder they can’t decide on a college major.

Here in Baldwin County, we’ve had a lot of unwelcome change thrust upon us, with hurricanes, an oil spill, recession and the housing crisis.

But positive change may be just ahead. Out-of-towners seem to be returning to the beaches.

Gov. Robert Bentley says that he is committed to addressing the skyrocketing homeowners’ insurance rates. More houses are selling.

Also, builders are coming back into the housing market. Some are new to this area; some have tweaked their product to be competitive. But many of the old faces are gone.

Caught with high-priced inventory and over-extended with the banks, many, many builders crashed and burned. In 2006 on the Eastern Shore, the average price per square foot for a new home was $127.38. Now it’s $94.06.

New home sales represented 23 percent of all of the sales in the first quarter of 2011. At the other end of the spectrum, foreclosures made up a third of the 244 sales in the first quarter.

Buyer demand is strong for both, putting pricing pressure on the existing home market, particularly those sellers with houses built in 2006 for $127.38 a square foot.

This was the best first quarter since 2007, with 244 sales in Spanish Fort, Daphne and Fairhope.

Average sales price was $218,162, down from $234,490 in the 4th quarter of 2010. Sellers took around 5% off their list prices in order to sell. It took on average 6 months to sell, with many houses being re-listed. At present, the market absorption rate is 9.5 months. This means if not one other house were listed, it would take this long for everything to sell.

On to the 1st quarter stats:

Fairhope: 94 homes sold with an average price of $238,175, compared to 59 sales this time last year with an average price of $266,308. On average, it took 198 days to sell and sellers trimmed 6.5% off their list prices to sell. Houses on the market here: 539

Daphne: 115 homes sold with an average price of $201,463, compared with 77 home sales with an average price of $246,382 during the first quarter last year. It took on average 159 days to sell and sellers sliced on average 3.5% off the price. There are 349 homes on the market.

Spanish Fort: 35 homes sold with an average price of $219,281, compared to 29 sales this time last year with an average price of $235,173. Sellers took on average 3.3% off list to sell. Average market time was 162 days. There are 125 homes for sale here.