Nothing happening so far this week, so I thought I’d check out what happened last month in the way of contracts on single family homes. Not bad.
We had 36 contracts last month, compared to just 7 in ’08, 23 in ’07 and 49 in ’06.
The price ranges were interesting. Here’s ’09 c0mpared to ’06:
2009 2006
11 <$1 7 <$1
9 $1-$2 13 $1-2
3 $2-$3 11 $2-$3
3 $3-$4 7 $3-$4
4 $4-$5 3 $4-5
0 $5-$8 6 $5-8
6 $8 -12 1 $12
Very encouraging stats but it is really only one month. What is really interesting is the highest two prices ranges…I guess the super rich see bargains.
Yeah, Stan – the middle market has dried up, the lower end is moving and the big boys are doing fine. My guess is that those middle ranges require a sale of an existing house to afford to move-up, while the super rich have cash.
It’ll be a barbell market for a while, at least until we see the excess inventory absorbed. There’s actually a limited number of really good wartless (is that a word?) properties on the market in many sections of town – driving those high priced deals.
You’re right, JJ, on both counts. It’s been very discouraging for me to have buyers ready and able to pay very large sums of money for a good house and yet find so many of them on land so marginal as to be beyond consideration. Always happens in booms, I suppose, when developers take bigger and bigger risks on land to build on. Those houses will be absorbed, eventually, at some low price but new, good lots – the only ones with a prayer of selling right now, are going to be found with houses already on them – after all, the best land sold long ago. So the tear-down trend will continue. on the other hand, that could also be termed “housing stock renewal”, which sounds better, no?