Is there a half a year gone or a half a year ahead?

With the end of June, 2011, it's time to look at the local real estate markets so far this year and maybe see what we see when we look ahead to the rest of this year.

I'm going to take this one market at a time and look at the markets in particular that I have multi-year data for, so that I can search for trends. Being based in Milford, that market is the first market that I'll take a look at in detail.

At the end of June, 2011, the bottom line numbers that I track looked like this:

                      List Price   Sold Price      %         SEV          SEV      DOM  Sq FT  List   Sold
                                                        S/L                    Multiple                     $/SF  $/SF
Median -         $224,500    $200,500    97%   $110,365   1.6758      38  1,881   $85   $84

Average -        $214,674    $204,822    97%   $117,604   1.6190    113  2,423   $93   $89

In 2010 those same end of June stats looked this way:

                     List Price      Sold Price   %            SEV         SEV    DOM     Sq FT   List   Sold
                                                        S/L                      Multiple                      $/SF  $/SF
Median -         $179,900    $183,500    97%   $ 94,750    1.6192      93     1,994   $86   $97

Average -        $225,575    $217,100    96%   $138,771   1.7009    139     2,454   $93   $91

Y-T-D for 2011 the numbers look like this:

                       List Price    Sold Price    %         SEV           SEV     DOM   Sq FT   List   Sold
                                                        S/L                      Multiple                     $/SF  $/SF
Median -         $197,000    $190,000    96%   $110,370    1.6018   113    2,142   $86   $84

Average -        $257,683    $239,026    95%   $133,307    1.6327   190    2,454   $93   $89

To see all of the underlying data that I collect on a monthly basis, go to my webs site -
www.movetomilford.com and choose the link for  What has sold in the Milford area.

Some things seem evident from the data. Home values have continued to fall in terms of the cost per Sq Ft. The assessed values are still higher in Milford than the market values (the SEV multiplier of sold value vs. SEV would be right at 2.0 is the assessed values and market values were in balance). Sellers continue to get reasonably close to asking price (once they get the price right). It's taking on average a 1/2 a year to sell.

So far I see no indication that we've really reached bottom yet. Prices are still dropping,albeit, not as fast anymore. Distressed sales - foreclosures and short sales -  still make up about 50% of total sales inthe market in this are and almost at that level in Milford. Property values remain high in MIlford compared to some surrounding markets mainly because sellers have been bull-headed about lowering prices to markt levels; thus sales volume remains very low. The assessors seem to be a biot ahead right now with assessed values being lower than sales values (and one must assume appraised values).