Of all the things that impact the housing market in any region, inventory may be the most important. The number of properties available for sale is what drives a market being dubbed “buyer’s” or “seller’s”. As with any other commodity, if there is much more on the shelves than buyers in the aisles, prices are impacted.

Unlike the price of apples, though, when a community has too much housing inventory, the impact can be widely felt. After all, properties whose value drops  will be taxed less. (You can read how property taxes are calculated in Guilford County here.) While lower taxes sounds great for the homeowner, lower tax revenues across a large area mean drastic changes for the entire community.

At any rate, tracking the housing inventory in Greensboro shows what everyone probably knows: There’s a great many properties for sale. As of June 5th, per our local Multiple Listing System (the database all properties listed by area Realtors) showed there are 3304 residential properties on the market. These include both ‘active’ and ‘pending’ listings. I include those units whose sales are pending because until they close, they’re not sold. And there has been many a fumble twixt contract and key exchange.

Compared with the same week last year, inventory is up. This week last year there were 3024 homes listed.

At the same time, the average list price is down from the same week last year. $222,871 this year versus $244,812 last year.

These prices are averages across all property types, across all zip codes. The ‘price of apples’ in some zip codes is decidedly more robust than in others:

Of course, some of those 3304 listings are indeed slated to close. Keeping a good thought towards that, the break down of active/pending listings in property types is this:

And active/pending by zip code is this:

Sadly, there is a portion of these listings that are foreclosures. The breakdown of the percentage of foreclosures in the overall numbers follow:

Eventually, there will be more buyers and fewer available properties. Until then, maybe we should get used to applesauce.

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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.

A quick snapshot of houses on the market in Greensboro show that there’s plenty to choose from, to say the very least.

Looking over the last 6 months, the total number of listings (including ‘active’ and ‘pending’ listings) is 2996*. That’s almost exactly smack-dab in the middle of the highest number of 3091 on May 26th and the lowest of 2892 on March 31st.

And the average list price – $222,900 – is lowest it’s been in that same time period.

This is not particularly welcome news for sellers, but awesome for buyers.

There has been a slight increase in the percentage of foreclosures in these numbers. Four of the nine Greensboro zip codes had a small increase in foreclosure listings: 27405 (+3), 27406(+5), 27410 (+2) and 27455 (+2). 27403 had a reduction (-1)The rest remained the same.

The percentage of overall listings that are foreclosures increased from 189 (6%) to 200 (7%). Nearly all of that gain is in the single-family category.

An example of a listing with an asking price representative of the average is this lovely thing at 1809 Colonial Avenues:

1809 Colonial Ave, Greensboro, NC 27408 $225,000 (MLS#526828)

The average listing price of $222,900 can buy a really nice house in a very nice neighborhood. The example to the left is such a house. With 3 bedrooms and 2 baths this house is representative of the size one would might expect as an “average”.

All in all, the numbers continue to show that Greensboro is following the very general trends of most of the country but without the big ‘ouchies’ some areas are enduring. Good deals are available, nice homes are on the market and a few houses are owned by banks.

Keep watching this space to see what happens next.

And now, the rest of the graphs, please…..

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) 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 news this week is mixed. Some good, some not so much. Some ups, some downs.

So, as in mixed nuts where you have to take the peanuts along with the cashews, and mixed drinks where soda uses up perfectly good space that could be occupied by scotch, we must accept this mixed news for what it is -  mixed.

The numbers are:

• Total Listings  -  2850 (up 1.1% from last week)
• Avg List Price -  $241,868 (up .7% from last week)

So, higher price = the cashews . Higher inventory = soda.

But looking at the bigger picture, as you know I love, inventory is down compared to early December and prices are up. Scotch and cashews!

I’m suddenly hungry and thirsty.

Also, it has just been released the inventory in 29 major markets is DOWN. This is some of the first good news on a broad scale that we’ve seen since the whole debacle started.

Bottom, bottom. Where is that bottom?

Now, for the “graphfluent” readers among you:

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). “Single-family” does not include Duplexes or manufactured homes.