Special offer

Delaware County PA Homes Inventory Update

By
Real Estate Agent with Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc

Unsold housing inventory continues to rise while sales continue their leisurely pace.

Last week the active inventory for homes for sale passed the 4100 level for the second time this summer. This year-to-date, 2083 homes have been sold.

Year:  Homes on the Market | Homes under Contract | Homes Sold
2010:            :3709                                 637                               2721
2011:            :4124                                 658                               2083
Change:       +11%                                 +3%                             -23%

Sales continue to lag this year as we remain well below a more "natural" sales rate. On the inventory side, the 4124 homes on the market represent an 11.1% rise over last year and a 28% rise since the last update in March 2011. The peak level of inventory for 2010 was reached in September of last year at just over 3900 homes.

Old Cheney PA StationPositive: From a buyer's perspective this continues to be an incredible opportunity to move into the market.  If you have good credit, you can still receive excellent rates with the broadest choice of inventory seen in years. From a seller's side, what you may have "lost" in price on your sale can be more than made up on the buy side for your new property - particularly if you are looking to move up to a larger or more expensive property.

Negative: The key negative continues to be the risk that if the need to sell overcomes the slack buyer demand, prices could easily retreat further. One needs to note that the savings from a slight price decline can easily be lost to higher interest rates should rates begin to climb (a good possibility given present problems in the financial markets/Washington).

Bottom Line: Our local real estate markets continue to be impacted by events and circumstances well out of our control. Short term both the credit markets and property markets should continue to remain unsettled. Long term, this combination of high inventory and low interest rates presents an incredible opportunity that has not been seen for years and may not last long.

David Henke
Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc
Devon PA/Wilmington DE
Direct:610-618-0808 - Office:610-225-7400
www.DelawarePAHomes.com 

(All statistics per the TrendMLS System and believed accurate but not guaranteed)

Comments (0)