Weekly Score Card 7-20-09
The listings for MLS Area 530 have now dropped to 279. That continues the downward trend for overall inventory. There were14 homes that came through as sold. The news here is that the average per sq. ft. sales price was $236 per sq. ft. this is the first significant move above the $220 per sq. ft. number which is where the market seemed stuck at. Also on the volume side at 14 that is a significant number and most impressive is that it appears there was only one bank owned home and one short sale. A move up in volume and per sq. ft. sales price indicated the reduction of distrssed inventory appears to be translating into higher over all pricing. The average sales price was $555,814 for this week’s sold homes and appears to be holding firmly above $500,000.
The pendings were very interesting. The volume was very high at 12 homes going pending. However the per sq. ft. average was $209. This is the first time in a long time the pending per sq. ft. sales price was lower than for the sold homes. In addition the average home pending list price was $525,982. This again is the first time the pending home sale price was lower than the sold home average. However even more interesting aspect of this weeks batch of pending sales is there appears to be no bank owned homes or short sales. This is a first. A dip down on pricing with no distressed inventory is counter intuitive. It appears the sellers must have been very sensitive to overall market weakness.
On the surface it appears the distressed inventory is getting cleared out and the per sq. ft. average home sale price is stabilizing over $500,000. The inventory under $400,000 is getting pretty picked over. My personal opinion is that the volumes will fall somewhat and that prices will level out but should not slip unless there is a significant fundamental second shoe to drop in the economy overall.