Posted by Aaron Bosshardt, COO, Bosshardt Realty, 05/26/09
According to the Case-Shiller Index, national home prices in the first quarter of 2009 fell 19.1% from the same period one year earlier. Nationally, home prices have fallen to 2002 levels, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Locally, statistics tracked by our Gainesville-Alachua County MLS show that area Single Familly Residential Home prices declined 11.8 percent. Local prices for Attached units (Condos) fared much worse, falling almost 17 percent. Overall volume for local home sales was down 23.9 percent, and attached volume crashed 67.8 percent. Average days on the market also went from 105 days to 149. For condos, the average days on the market went from 128 to 165 in the first quarter of this year.
Separately ,Zillow is reporting that area prices are down 10 percent according to their own in-house statistics. They say that 80 percent of homeowners now acknowledge that their property has lost value in the last year.
Pricing numbers for the 2nd quarter may not look much better, as it seems as though some banks have taken back some properties and priced them below wholesale in some instances, which makes one wonder why they bothered to take them back in the first place.
There is a silver lining in all these numbers. Inventory is falling steadily, and the rate of new listings to new sales has fallen from 4.4 to 3.8. What will also help is that we are heading into the height of our selling season, so for the intelligent seller who is willing to accept honest, realistic pricing advice, things are looking up these days.
