Shhh. Be very, very quiet. There have been Good News Faeries about, tempting us with little morsels of cheer. If we’re not careful, we may begin to feel better and worry a little less. Then what will we do with our time?
Wait. I know exactly what I’ll do. A cartwheel.
The National Association of Realtors reports that housing sales nationwide were up – way up – in April. And in Greensboro we did our share. There were 274 closings in April in Greensboro*. That’s the 4th straight month of increases, 18% more than last April and is actually the highest since – wait for it – August of 2008.
Granted, a great deal of this can surely be attributed to the Home Buyers’ Tax Credit which is now a part of our past. But thost 273 properties represent about 548 or happy folks, not including the movers, lenders, Realtors, appliance sales people, and pizza delivery people who benefit from housing sales. (It is almost obligatory that you order pizza to be delivered the at the end of a day of moving furniture. One wonders how people changes domiciles before Domino’s existed)
But there’s more to the upswing than just the raw number of sales. The average listing price and average sales price also increased, whilst the average days on market declined.
And if we look really closely, we see that in April, the percentage of closings that were foreclosures was less in 2010 (19%) than 2009 (27%). That can indicate that the sales in April were not investors look to scarf up deals but homeowners. Awesome.
Sales were up in most Greensboro zip codes, although 27405 and 27406 – those most impacted by foreclosure listings – didn’t enjoy the same lift. (Wow. Look at 27410 in 2007. Looks like it giving the finger to the rest of the graph!)
Who knows what the May sales will show us, but I’ll take four months of improvement over the alternative any day.
Now, please excuse me as I go to practice my cartwheels. If you hear sirens in town, you’ll know I need more work on them.
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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
