This past week our listings saw an average of 3.3 showing each which is a huge jump from previous weeks. However, this week the average was skewed tremendously by a few listings with aggressive pricing that received a disproportionate number of showings. While some of our listings had little to no traffic, a select few had many. One of our listings had eleven showings in the last seven days. Which, of course, begs the question why isn’t it under contract yet. Such is the nature of today’s market. I suspect that one will be under contract soon, but the message is very clear that the successful sellers probably don’t feel success because selling in this market requires very aggressive pricing and lots of critical lookers.
We sent out our monthly E-Newsletter last week and reported the market stats for Mecklenburg County in October. Here is a summary when comparing October to both the prior month and the same month last year:
Home sales are were down 36% from last year and down 9% from September.
Average sales price was up 4% from last year, but down 9% from September.
Days on market is up slightly from last year but down from September.
Pending home sales were down 6% from last year but holding steady from September.
Supply was down 7% from last year and down 1% from September.
Mortgage rates are down to 4.23% from 4.95% a year ago.
This coming week is the beginning of the six week holiday season. Typically real estate activity slows during this time frame which yields a lower number of closings in January and February. In my blog a few weeks ago, I noted that sales in February are historically at their lowest levels during the course of a year. So I would anticipate that pending home sales will begin dropping over the next few months. I was expecting to see a slight drop in pendings for October, but surprisingly they have remained consistent from the previous month. I’d be thrilled to see that pattern continue.
There has been a significant slowdown in sales since the expiration of the tax credit. With the extreme slump in sales, there has to be some pent up demand building. That could explain why pendings haven’t dropped off yet. Nonetheless, sales are likely to slow through the holidays and during the first part of next year. The pending sales in the first few months of 2011 will surely give a better indication as to whether or not real estate will continue at the current pace or pickup some steam. I’m hoping for the latter, but I’ll be hear reporting the data either way.