Dothan Real Estate - December 2008 Inventory Report

There hasn’t been much movement either up or down in the number of homes for sale in the Dothan MLS over the past several weeks. Single family houses for sale peeked around 1,030 in early November, but have since settled back down to around the 1,000 mark. Considering that an increase in inventory during the fall is very common, it looks as though the top may have been reached. We will know after the first of the year, when another surge upward could occur.

Absorption rate
A big fall in the number of homes sold in November (more in the sales report coming next week) lead to a rise in absorption rate. Refreshing everyone’s memory, absorption rate is the number of month of inventory currently on the market at the current sales pace. In other words, how long it would take to clear all the homes for sale on the market if no more were listed.
The absorption rate for December is up to 12.67 months, the highest since at least 2000 or 2001.

Here are inventory and absorption rate numbers for several areas around the Wiregrass.

	Sold	Active	Absorption
Area	November	12/19/2008	Rate (months)
Dothan (northwest) - Midland City	8	168	21
Dothan - Southwest	12	297	24.75
Dothan - Northeast	3	38	12.67
Dothan - Southeast	5	110	22
Headland	2	52	26
Rehobeth - Taylor	0	5	-
Wicksburg - Pinckard - Newton	3	29	9.67
Slocomb - Hartford - Geneva County	1	35	35
Abbeville - Newville	2	27	13.5
Ashford - Cottonwood - Gordon	2	44	22
Columbia - Webb - Kinsey	3	28	9.33

Tags: absorption+rate, Dothan, real+estate+market