December sales in Ada County were 518. That’s an increase from December ’09 of 19%. This is the first year over year increase since June; and is the highest number of unit sales since the same month! Year-To-Date ’10 is now 5,891; an increase of 7.7% over 2009. I told you we could do it!
Just in case you forgot the impact of real estate sales on our economy…through the end of December we are nearly $1.1 billion in total sales. That’s $23 million more than we sold in all of 2009; with a 8% decrease in median sales price.
Historically, sales volume in December is less than November…not this time. December was up compared to November ’10 by almost 20%! (In case you’re counting, that’s three exclamation points in two paragraphs.)
Of our total sales in November…61% were distressed….up 9% from last month. (Short sales 21% and REO’s 39%). This is as high as it was last spring…clearly the highest levels of distress we’ve seen this year.
Pending sales dropped 17% to 575 from the 690 we had at the end of November.
The percentage of pending sales in distress rose 2% from November to 54% overall.
The number of houses available at the end of December fell to its lowest levels since early 2006. As of the end of the year there were 2,641 homes available. At the end of the year we had 25% fewer homes available than in January. At the same time, the percentage of active inventory that is distressed, increased 2% from November to 45%.
In Ada County we have 5.6 months of inventory on hand…down one full month from the end of November. The price categories in shortest supply are equally distributed between $100K-$250.
Median home price ended the year at $155,000. Compared to year-end 2009 we are down 8%. We are essentially back to late spring home values.
New Homes median price ended the year at $177,875. This is an increase from the 2009 year-end median of $169,990. Mark my words…2011 will be a good year to be selling new homes.
So now we enter year two of our “official” recovery. I know that you are ready. I an promise you that ACAR is ready to assist you in every professional way, to make 2011 a year that we look back on fondly. Heck…it beats the stuffing out of the last couple.
Looking back at 2010 here’s what we’ve got…
Home sales volume is picking up – lagging the national average, but still on the rise
Inventory continues to fall
Median prices are trying to stabilize
Distressed properties (sold, pending and percentage of inventory) as as igh as they have ever been
What does this tell us?
Contrary to most of the rest of the country, we’ve already “burned through” the “glut” of inventory. With inventory this low, and not likely to grow that quickly, prices should stabilize.
But, median home price (for existing homes) continues to bounce along the bottom. Its likely the victim of the unusually high levels of distressed properties.
Our state legislature went into session this week. The Governor said in his state of the state address yesterday that we have to look at thing differently (as far as expecting services from government) from here on out.
The same is true for housing. We seem to be at the beginning of a transition in consumer expectations in home purchase. The desirability and availability of new homes (that don’t carry the baggage of short sales and REOs) may eclipse the historical consumer preference for existing (used) homes.
This shift in preference could also provide a secondary benefit…more jobs.
Construction increases. Construction jobs start to come back. And…well you know the story goes after that.
Regards,
Michael Hon
CEO, The Iron Eagle Realty Team
Associate Broker, Market Pro
Certified Short Sale Specialist®
Investment Property Consultant
Direct: 208.919.0458 Office: 208.939.9033 Fax 208.514.1422
www.IronEagleRE.com Michael.Hon@IronEagleRE.com
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