I have been reading a lot of Doom and Gloom type articles from our illustrious media lately about the 2008 real estate market and wanted to contribute my thoughts. The news should not be all bad. As I am compiling the statistics for my local market in the central Minnesota area there are quite a few positives that need to be heard. First off, according to the data from Flex MLS from the St Cloud Area Association of Realtors the total volume of properties sold in the calendar year from January 1, 2008 thru January 1, 2009, there was over 404 million dollars of real estate that was bought and sold. Yep, I said 404+ million! Please also keep in mind that there are some properties that were sold private party and outside of our MLS system that are not included in this figure. WOW!
Overall we did have fewer active listings we went from 8907 to 8542 active listings, this means that fewer properties were available on the market this year compared to last. New listings went from 6723 to 6177, people who do not have to compete in this market appear to be waiting for a better time to sell. The number of homes that went under contract dropped less than 100 homes in a year to year comparison, and again keep in mind this does not take into account the homes that were under contract and did not close. There was an increase in this occurring as the banks tightened up their lending perimeters which excluded some closings from occurring in 2008. The total number of properties sold in 2007 was 2681 and in 2008 was 2532, and again the year end break may skew this number slightly (if a home went pending during Nov and did not close until Jan 15 it will not be included).
There are a few areas where there were extreme positive changes. In the southeast area for condo/townhouse/patio home sales there was an increase in sold volume of +114%, and the outlying northeast saw an increase of +280%. The number of single family homes in the outlying Southeast sold increased by 36% and the sold volume went from $55,185,076 to $57,954,581.
Now, these numbers also show the sell off of bank owned foreclosed properties that increased the number of sales and decreased the average sale price. But the inventory is getting reduced at a good clip and when the supply gets balanced, values will rise again!
Overall the drops are very small but large portions of the market remain solid North St Cloud, East St Cloud, West St Cloud and Sartell all had no change in the year to year percent of list price to sold price from the previous year. Waite Park appears very stable in all of its figures for single family residences.
In the mean time great prices, historically low interest rates and a $7500 1st time homebuyer tax credit make this the best time I've ever seen for buyers!
I will be posting the year to year stats comparing 2007 to 2008 area specific on my blog over the next few days, so be sure to check back. Also feel free to post your thoughts about the market, we welcome all comments. Have a fantastic 2009! Steve Baklaich with RE/MAX Realty Source (320) 260-3290
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