Real Estate in Northeast Florida and Around the World

The latest housing data for Northeast Florida has been released by the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors®.  The good news sounds like bad news - but when you dig a little deeper than the headlines, it really is positive news.

The Headline - April Sales Down 8.8%.  The rest of the story - this is compared to April 2010 - which was the last month for most individuals purchasing existing homes - first time homebuyer or move up buyer - to be under contract and be eligible for the $8,000 federal home buyer tax credit.  So the surge in contracts and pending sales last year was huge last year. In addition, because so many buyers (and agents for that matter) were confused on the dates, many of the closings in April 2010 were a result of folks thinking they needed to close by April 30.  So the fact that sales are down 8.8% makes sense, but let's look a bit deeper for other positive signs.

Inventories are down 23.8%.  This is almost a quarter less inventory than the same time last year.  Looking a bit closer, in April 2009, there was a 15.6 month supply of houses on the market.  This means that if no other houses came available, it would take 15.6 months at the rate of sale for the inventory to be absorbed.  In April 2010, we were down to a 12 month supply.  Now?  We are at an 8.9 month supply of housing inventory as of the end of April 2011 - quickly approaching the "normal" market standard of 6 months.  In addition, we saw an average sales price increase of 1.7% comparing April 2010's average sales price of $166,079 to April 2011's average of $168,977.  Yes, the median (or the very middle) was down 8.1% to $125,000, but the fact that the average went up tells me that more house in the upper price ranges are beginning to sell, and impacting our averages.  The impact of this decline is that the buyer's are finding the "good stuff" more quickly, and it is turning more quickly when market the sale at a price that is where a buyer would consider the "market" price to be. 

National headlines are that - national.  They do not reflect what is happening regionally or in your own neighborhood.  If you want to know what is happening in your neighborhood, give me a call.  I'll give you the facts, and the rest of the story behind the headline.