Generally, home sale prices of existing, detached homes appear to have stabilized even though buyers haven't decided it's completely safe to come out and play house. January's median sales price was $172,000, a drop of -0.14 percent from January 2010, while the month's average was $201,239, or a drop of -2.13 over the same time.
However, this could be the fact that 2010's year end average price of $215,989 was in positive territory compared with 2009-an increase of 0.62 percent after two years of significant decreases in the average price (-4.30 in 2008 and -7.72 in 2009).
The 2010 increase is almost negligible, but it's the difference between a minus and a plus . In the bigger picture, I feel comfortable in saying I think were at the bottom of the market. The year end change in the median price from 2009 to 2010 did decrease, however- a blip of -0.56 percent.
Though sales prices show signs of life, buyers have been a bit lethargic. This is called; “remaining sense of anxiety”. Home sale were down -6.04 percent in 2010 versus 2009. That amounts to 481 fewer homes sold last year. In what I like to call a “classic economics conversation” If demand decreases, price has to decrease given a static supply. And right now, we have a relatively static supply.
Looking at 2011, the month of January had 363 closing sales, which in a month-to-month comparison is up slightly from the 349 homes sold in January 2010 but down from December's 505 sales; there were 693 pending sales in January, up from 540 in December and down from 740 a year ago. Homes that sold last month were on the market an average of 82 days, compared with 81 days last January.
So, what can the Albuquerque metro area expect for the rest of this year? I predict pretty much the same as 2010. It's not going to be a dramatic increase (in prices or activity), but there will be a decrease in prices.
*God Speed*
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