I’m coming to you today to report that the world is most certainly NOT coming to an end! Real Estate sales held steady during the month of August around Arlington, Virginia – I would say even strengthened in some ways.
One particularly encouraging aspect of the numbers shows that “days on market” might actually be shrinking. We’ve been saying all along that as sellers become more aware of the market conditions, and more willing to price their homes correctly, with the advice of an expert agent (like myself) their homes will still sell, and some, I’m hearing, with multiple offers. But it has to look good and be priced right – that combination is like a ONE-TWO punch! And it’s absolutely necessary for a speedy, smooth transaction.
Here’s how the numbers look August of this year compared with last August:
| Aug-07 | This year | Previous Year | ||||||
| Act | U/C | Sold Units | Avg DOM | ASP | Sold Units | Avg DOM | ASP | |
| Condos | 387 | 167 | 113 | 41 | 424K | 184 | 59 | 398K |
| SFH | 337 | 83 | 85 | 49 | 829K | 85 | 59 | 766K |
| SFH 22207 | 97 | 37 | 36 | 42 | 996K | 35 | 75 | 834K |
I see shorter Days on Market across the board – just for August – year-to-date homes are still taking longer to sell this year than last. Here’s how it looks year-to-date:
| Jan 1 – Aug 31 — 2006 – 2007 comparison | |||
| Units Sold | ASP | DOM | |
| Condo | |||
| ‘07 | 1166 | 405K | 55 |
| ‘06 | 1054 | 399K | 52 |
| SFH | |||
| ‘07 | 745 | 813K | 75 |
| ‘06 | 741 | 804K | 48 |
| SFH 22207 | |||
| ‘07 | 295 | 973K | 76 |
| ‘06 | 268 | 910K | 56 |
Look at the condo market!! We’ve sold more units in 2007, for a higher average selling price in *almost* the same length of time – condo market bust? I don’t think so! Even in the single family home market, almost the same track record as far as units sold, a little higher value this year, but longer on the market – and this is mirrored when just looking at the 22207 zip code.
Here’s another interesting piece of information I’ve begun tracking for you: absorption rates. For Arlington, they look pretty good…
Condo: 2.31
SFH: 4.06
22207 SFH: 2.62
The absorption rate is basically how long it would take to sell through the current inventory. Many parts around the country are seeing double digit absorption rates. What does this mean? Basically there is a little over 4 months worth of inventory in the single family home market in Arlington County – only about 2 1/2 months of condos… I’ll continue to monitor these rates for you.
As always if you’d like to have a conversation more specific to your neighborhood, county, zip code, etc… please don’t hesitate to contact me. The numbers are very telling and it’s good to look at them before believing all the hype you read in the papers! Real estate is a LOCAL animal! Sometimes neighborhood by neighborhood.
Happy Tuesday – hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day and a most excellent first day back to school!
Jennifer
It’s great to see data like this. The media is so focused on negatively spinning the data. I am wondering if your local news outlets are presenting this sort of information to the public?
Thanks for the support! Unfortunately, no, the news outlets here are all gloom and doom – I just ran market statistics for a neighborhood I farm and it, too, shows we’re still showing double digit price appreciation – but longer days on market – so if folks price right and show well – they sell. IF not, they sit, sit, sit… I wish the media would *help* us instead of that glass always being half empty!
Have a good one!