Everyone needs to move very slowly so as to not disrupt the delicate balance of kind-of-good news about real estate that’s started popping up lately. It’s like freezing in place when there’s a free throw that determines the ACC championship with 2 seconds left on the clock. Us making no sudden movements in our den has nothing to do with the player on the court, but we do it anyway.
I thought the heat had finally gotten to me when I realized there had been not one but two positive stories yesterday about the market. The first is that new home sales jumped dramatically nationwide in June. The other that the decline in housing prices may be near the bottom. Granted, these are numbers for the nation existing and prices are still lower than they were a couple of years ago. But this is great to read anyway. Throw in a forecast for temperatures below 90º and humidity below 85% and there will really be reason for celebration.
As for the numbers right here in Greensboro, it looks like we’re pretty much in line with the nation.
I haven’t tracked new home sales so won’t address that, but home sales in Greensboro have indeed been trending up over the last few months. Prices as well.
And while it’s hard to see from the above graph, the average closed price to list price has remained fairly steady at about 96%. (This is a question that comes up often with buyers. In other parts of the country, traditional close/list price ratios can be quite different but have remained quite consistent in the Greensboro area.)
Another sales indicator is the average “days on market”. For June that number took a dip to 99 days, breaking an upward trend of the previous four months.
Something that may be helping both prices and days on market it that in June there was a dramatic change in the number of closing that were foreclosures. That is, while the percentage closings of foreclosed properties in January through May were 27%, 29%, 28%, 27% and 23% respectively, only 17% were foreclosures in June.
The downward pressure on prices when there are foreclosures is stong. So, the fewer foreclosures allows numbers to being to normalize.
My most recent post reflects that there has been an increase in the number of foreclosures compared to recent months, but the 9 properties listed last week are far fewer than the 16 listed during the same week one year ago. So, again, the trend is encouraging.
Now, no sudden movements!
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As always, whether the news is good or bad, you’ll see it here.
If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email. I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.
* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and is only as good as the information entered, which is done by humans, who make errors. The information is only for those residential zip codes for Greensboro and does not include the surrounding communities
