The total number of listings as of today is 2782 compared to last week’s 2731, an increase of 51 (1.9%)*

The average list price of active listings is $240, 364 compared to $239, 715, up $650 (.3%)

Of the total number of listings the breakdown is:

• Active 2383 (86%)
• Pending 399 (14%)

For those keeping score, that’s a slight increase in the percentage of pending sales, which had been running at about 11% or 12% up until last week.

Here’s your graph fix (You know you want ‘em)

As always, whether the news is good or bad, you’ll see 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). “Single-family” does not include Duplexes or manufactured homes.

But if one reads the entire article, one sees why what we’re seeing in the Greensboro housing market may not be that outlandish. That is, the somewhat good news may not be an aberration. There are varying levels of awfulness, depending on geographic region, and ours is different than others.

What I’m getting at is that, wonder of wonders, for yet another week, the number of listings on the market in Greensboro have declined. And the average list price has increased. Wha..?

Indeed. Check it out. This reflects the number of properties on the market (active and under contract) as of today*:

And Here is the average list price of those properties:

And the average list price in all the zip codes was up from the previous week. Some were at their highest point in the last several weeks:

(Ain’t that purty?)

So how can all this be? Honestly, I’m not sure. And next week the bottom may drop out. But if we look carefully at the article cited above and read all the way to the end, we’ll see that the glaring and horrific economic headline betrays a bit more moderate news:

November’s pending home sales index was dragged down by worsening market conditions in key regions. In the Northeast, the pending home sales index dropped 7.2 percent ……. 6.7 percent to 74.2 in the Midwest…..In the South the index declined 2.2 percent ………in the West it was down 2.4 percent….

So the numbers are bad in general, but not so bad in the South. Greensboro is in the South. And if all of the South only had a 2.2% decline in pending sales, is it not possible that certain areas (like, say, maybe GREENSBORO) had less – or even had in improvement?

I’m just asking.

Okay, enough pontificating. Let’s get back to 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). It doesn’t include For Sale By Owner properties.

One might predict, and one would be correct, that there are far more single-family houses for sale in Greensboro than either townhouses or condominiums. Or even as these two categories combined. We’re just a ‘suburby’ type of city.

Of the houses on the market -’actives’ and ‘pendings’ combined – the  numbers fall out thus:

• Single-Family – 2111 (72%)
• Townhouse – 448 (15%)
• Condominium  – 391 (15%)

And for the graphical fix:

Greensboro Actives & Pendings by Property Types*

* Data per info from Triad MLS (Multiple Listing Service). At least, my download, copy, paste, sort and subtotaling of it.

But them’s the figures. Or at least they were the figures until the current..unpleasantness…started.

So, surely buyers are getting to knock off 10, 15, 20 percent off prices and getting deals. Right?

Not so fast, Grasshopper. Let’s look at some figures for the year and half or so:

In Greensboro (and I’ll be looking just at Greensboro for these purposes, to keep my brain from breaking trying to pull data from the multi-county area that comprises the Triad MLS) the averages for CLOSED properties are:

June 1, 2008 – November 30, 2008* (the most recent 6 months)

• Average List Price:       $177,310
  
• Average Sales Price:     $171,527
  
• Sales/List Percentage:      96.7%
  

June 30, 2007 – May 31, 2008 (the 12 months prior to that)

• Average List Price:       $179,819
  
• Average Sales Price:     $174,969
  
• Sales/List Percentage:      97.3%
  

First we can see that the List/Sales price percentage is nearly the same. Second we can see that list prices in the most recent 6 month period are lower than in the preview 12 month period.

So, what gives? What’s with all the desperation and angst in the market we keep hearing about?

Well, it’s out there. Just not necessarily in the Greensboro city limits. If you read my earlier post you know that in the whole of Guilford County, of which Greensboro is the largest city and county seat, average prices have fallen more dramatically. But even with that the average sales/list price came in at about 95.5%

One reason for this is that there is another variable and that’s the original list price of houses. As homes have remained on the market and inventory has increased, sellers have reduced the asking price of their home. In the aforementioned time frames we see the following:

June 1, 2008 – November 30, 2008 (the most recent 6 months)

• Average original list  price: $191,138
  
• Average final list price:       $177,310

June 30, 2007 – May 31, 2008 (the 12 months prior to that)

• Average original list  price: $186,437
  
• Average final list price:       $179,819

Thus, we can see that sellers have – on average – already reduced their asking price by about 7% recently before hitting the number that produces a sale whereas a year or so ago, all other things being equal, that owner would have reduced by only about 4%.

All this having been written, it is clear that while some deals are being made with great price concessions being made by sellers, it’s still not fire sale time. Not in Greensboro, anyway. Other parts of the country are experiencing very different trends.

Just know that low-balling an offer may get you a deal. Or it may get you an irritated seller who feels they aren’t interested in being reamed and won’t deal with you. One never knows.

Each transaction is unique to the individuals involved. There is no absolute in the purchase or sale of a home. It’s exciting and traumatic and scary and exhausting for those on both sides of the table. And keep in mind that there are humans involved. Some in not so great a place.

Be nice. And if you can’t be nice, be humane.

* Again, all data is pulled, compiled and possibly jacked up by me, but I’ve tried to keep it as clean as possible and is all from Triad MLS (Multiple Listing Service).