There were 348* closed properties in the nine residential zip codes in Greensboro. That’s up about 34% from June 2009 when there were 259 closed properties. (This is only slightly lower than June 2008, which had 388 closings, but down 19% from June 2007, when there were 428 properties closed….>meh<…)

This was the 5th straight month of improving numbers.

The average closed price is up as well, at $172,052 which is 5% higher than last June ($163,663).

The sales data by zip codes shows that almost all had year-over-year increase in sales. Only 27406 was flat. Two zips, 27401 and 27455 actually had more closings in June 2010 than in the previous two years.

The sales numbers for July will be a test, since the effects of the federal home buyer tax credit will have passed for the most part. But for now, let’s celebrate this hot, hot June.

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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) as of June 29, 2010,  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.

Of course, Money Magazine is referring to things economical, not climatological. In this case, it seems our city has a hot housing market, and they provide a map of the country with comparisons:

Click to view larger image (PDF)

This may come as something of a shock to the owners of the 3200+ properties currently on the market in Greensboro, but it indicates that, as rough as things may feel now, we’re better off than many other places in the country.

And we take good news however we can get it.

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The thoughts & opinions are mine. The quips that fall flat are someone else’s. Please feel free to shoot me an email with a question or a good joke.

And remember, real estate agents aren’t bad. We’re just drawn that way.

What does all this mean to buyers, sellers and to those interested in their own property values?

It means things are pretty cruddy for you if are trying to sell your house and things are pretty good for you if you’re looking to buy.

This has been the case for some time now. (I would like to compare inventory and prices for this week compared to the same time last year, but I was so demoralized after months of bad news in 2009 that I took I hiatus from stats for several weeks. Now my pity party is over and comparative data will be the name of the game from now on – no matter how gross.)

This is not to say nothing is moving Properties are selling. In the next day or so I’ll post about the June sales numbers, which were higher than May as well as higher than last June. A large part of that is undoubtedly due to the late, great federal home buyers tax credit. But, still.

The long and the short of it is, if you want to sell your house, clean it, de-clutter it, make it smell nice and price it properly.

That last thing is key. The whole issue with so much inventory is that, if you have a house to sell, there are that many more people who have one to sell at about the same size, location, school district, etc.,  You have to make your home the one that buyers can most easily see themselves purchasing and moving into with the fewest hassles.

Getting back to the numbers, the 27410 zip code continues to have the lion’s share of listings: 674.

27405, 27406 and 27406 are neck and neck and neck with 443, 446 and 445. (27405 & 27406 also have the greatest number and greatest percentage of foreclosures.

The average list price for the week, including all property types, is about $222K. What will spending about that amount buy you? Here’s an example. (Click on the photo for more information):

2209 W. Friendly Avenue, Greensboro, NC $214,900 (MLS#572063)

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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) as of June 29, 2010,  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.

I’ve added a metric to my weekly peak at the foreclosure listings: The percentage or overall listings are foreclosures.

For all the months and months I’ve been tracking weekly forclosure listings in the nine residential Greensboro zip codes, I’ve never looked this number.

Well, bad on me because that number may be as telling as any other about the state of the market here in town.

For the week ending June 20, 2010, there were 14 new foreclosure listings. There were 142 listings overall, meaning 9.9% are foreclosures. This got me to wondering about the historical trend for this measure in Greensboro.

As well as I can figure, pulling data from the MLS (from whence all my listing information has always come), 9.9% is fairly middling. Actually below the 12 week average of 11.8% of weekly listings. In those 12 weeks, the highest percentage was *gag* 17% and the lowest was 6.7%.

Looking back to the same 12 weeks last year and the streams begin to cross:

You can see that there were weeks last year when the percentage of foreclosures was quite a bit lower than now. But there was a moratorium on foreclosures for a spell back then. I was surprised to see, though, that the percentage of foreclosures on a weekly basis, other than the moratorium time, hasn’t changed appreciably since I started tracking way back in early September 2008.

That was the month things started feeling pretty weird, real estate-wise around here.

I would have thought that we would have seen a steady increase over all this time. Not so. Over these nearly two years of data, the average percentage of foreclosures listed has been 11.6%. Again, these are properties listed in the Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS). It doesn’t include properties sold on the courthouse steps or otherwise outside the MLS.

Still. It surprised me.

Oh well. Here are the rest of the numbers:

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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.

Although 3300 properties is down from last week’s number of 3314 (and the previous week’s – 3304) the inventory number is still too high and the average list price is still off from where we were last year.

Some more details:

• The percentage of foreclosures overall is about 8%. This has been a fairly consistent number.
• The zip code with the highest number of listings is 27410. Again, nothing new there.
• The highest priced property is $3,500,000. The lowest is $12,000.
• Of the current listings, about 18% are ‘pending’.
• 85% are single-family
• 17% are townhouses
• 13% are condominiums

At this point what we will hope is that the inventory is leveling off. One the number of properties on the market being to decline, prices will at some point start to increase. The last couple of months have had good sales data. It remains to be seen how the next couple of months will treat the housing market in Greensboro. But whatever the news, you’ll be able to find it here.

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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) as of June 29, 2010,  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.

My cautious hopefulness last week about the teensiest indication of an improvement in Greensboro foreclosure listings was short-lived. Listings were back up to 18* this week and all zip codes except 27409 had at least one. And the 12-week rolling number shot back up as well, to 179 from 169.

The highest priced foreclosure for the week ending June 13th is $379,900 in the 27408 zip code. The lowest is $12,900in  27407.

Three zip codes continue to dominate the total listings over the last 12 weeks: 27405, 27406, 27407. Between them they account for 58% of the total foreclosures listed.

The rest of the data rolls out like so:

It’s obviously going to be a while before the backlog of foreclosures that are currently in the pipeline to work through the system before we see any appreciable improvement in these numbers.

Meh.

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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.

Look at that.313 closed sales in Greensboro in May. That’s the fourth month of increase in a row, and a 25% increase over May, 2009.

I know, I know. There was the Federal Home Buyer’s Tax Credit that spurred sales along. And after June 30th (or September 30th if a Senate proposal is approved), the deadline to close on existing contracts to claim the credit, there will possibly be a drop off.

So what? If the purpose of the tax credit was to get people buying houses, it worked. I’m not about to pooh-pooh the good numbers because they may not last any more than I would say Summer doesn’t count because Winter will surely return.

Better is better. And this is better. It is also 313 houses that are no longer on the market. True that until our overall inventory starts to decline, things are going to be tough for many people. But the only way to have a decrease in inventory is to have closings. Which brings us back to the good showing for May.

The average closed price was $168,440, the highest since November 2009, but 10% lower than May 2009. Prices will recover after sales pick up. That’s the way it works. The list price/closed price ratio was 96%, the same as virtually every month.

Sales were up in almost all 9 Greensboro zip codes except for 27455 which was down down by 2 and 27409 which was unchanged.

We must look at foreclosures in any discussion of real estate these days and on that front there may be some decent news. Namely, the percentage of closings that were foreclosures in May 2010 was 16%, the 6th decline in that number and down from the 23% in May 2009.

This is more hopeful data, as was last week’s Greensboro foreclosure listing numbers, that maybe (maybe, maybe) the tide is beginning to turn on this wretched chapter for the housing industry.

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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.

The average list price is $222,643, barely changed from last week’s 222,871.

What is a more telling statistic is the comparison with inventories this week last year. Again, we have more listings at an average lower price.

Interestingly, there is just about exactly 10% more inventory than last year and the average list price is almost exactly 10% lower.

The effect of supply and demand on price, man. It’s one of those constants in life. Like cellulite.

Here’s the rest of the parade of graphics:

It will be interesting to see when the gap between last year’s and this year’s inventory numbers – and the average list prices – start to go back towards each other.

As soon as that happens, look for it here.

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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.

Here is this week’s map. Click on it to see more details.

Today there was a 5K run at the new 3rd runway at Greensboro’s Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTI). It was a clear, warm day. Very warm for the 1100 or so runners.

There were shuttles carrying participants and spectators from one of the parking lots to the runway. There were tents and balloons and bright sun.

And there were shiny planes on display. As I’ve written before, Greensboro has become something of an aviation center or so-called aerotropolis. With Fedex opening a hub here and HondaJet choosing Greensboro as it’s home, there’s lot’s of action and anticipation in the air. Literally.