A Bad Year? Yes, But Not Disaster!
Sales results for Ashland were disappointing. What had started as a pretty good year in terms of sales rate during the first half of 2008 fell to nothing after the Credit Crisis of mid-September. The remainder of the year was extremely slow. Ashland's results, though, were better than surrounding towns. (See the table below shows.)
|
(In Percentages) |
Single Family |
Condominiums |
|
# of Units Sold |
10.7% |
19.8% |
|
Price |
4.8% |
7.3% |
|
Days on Market |
Improved 5.9% |
2.6% |
What happened, of course, is that the Credit Crisis froze everyone in place. Nothing of any substance was undertaken for the last quarter of 2008. Mortgages became harder to obtain; banks more wary of their clients; customers terrified to make financial decisions when their jobs might be there at the end of the year.
But slowly, slowly, things have improved. While hard to define in terms of sales, this can be measured in terms such as number of phone calls into our offices, numbers of visitors to our web sites, number of people inquiring about listing, etc. In terms of activity, we are back to the rates of mid-2008, but we are definitely not in the doldrums of last Fall.
Ashland also was not as negatively impacted as other towns. (There are towns which actually saw increases in activity and prices.) Our train station, our schools, our small town environment all help to buffer our real estate market. Not perfectly because sales of Condos in particular fell again, nearly 20%, and Condos prices fell 7.3%. Surrounding towns though were much more impacted. A more detailed report is available at our web site (www.homesconnection.com) and we can mail a copy of the full report is you call 508-231-4566.
With things slowly improving after last Fall's crash, we are looking forward to spring 2009 and better times.
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