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Local Housing Market

By Jordan Mariano

Real Estate Agent with Weichert Realtors

July 25, 2008 04:47 AM

A lot of people have been asking me about our local real estate market, and how its holding up, so here is my thought:

Stats below are provided from Trend MLS for Residential only (not multi family, commercial & lots), as of Friday 7/25/08.

Montgomery County:

Jan - June 2006 - 5314 Houses Sold, $336,845 average sold price
Jan - June 2007 - 4961 Houses Sold, $334,603 average sold price
Jan - June 2008 - 3969 Houses Sold, $323,761 average sold price

This tells me that in 2 years, the number of transactions has gone down about 25% when comparing a 6 month period, and the average price has gone down about 4% in that same period of time. We'll see how the year end results look compared to '06 & '07.

Personally I've seen some houses locally where they are asking 10% or so less than they paid in '06 & can't sell it. I've seen some homes go for 10 - 15% less than what they had previously sold for, and some houses are selling for more than, or about the same as they did in 2006. A house is only worth what a willing, ready & able buyer will pay at a given time. I've seen appraisers value a home below the agreed upon price recently too. In most cases recently, they're only permitted to look at comparable sales from the last 6 months, which makes it more difficult for them to prove the value. When the appraiser values a home below the agreed upon sale price, some of the options are:
1. Adjust the sale price downward accordingly.
2. Ask the buyer if they're willing & able to buy a home above appraised value, and ask them to throw in some more cash.
3. Postpone settlement until more comparable homes settle.
4. Move onto the next buyer if buyers aren't willing to go through with it, and hope for the best with the next appraisal.

Multi Family properties, lots, etc. have been impacted differently than Residential.

Keep in mind, every real estate market is good for some segment of the market, if not more than one segment (buyers, sellers, investors, move-up-buyers, etc.) Also, each market is different, even down to the neighborhood, street, etc.

Pass this along to whomever you'd like. I'd be glad to talk to anyone to see if now is a good time to buy and/or sell (based on their situation, local market, etc. I work in all of Montgomery County, and some of Bucks, Philadelphia, Delaware & Chester Counties.