December is a wrap. Well, almost, not everyone has turned in their closed transactions for the year. Yes, It is January 12, and yes, they are supposed to all be in by the second business day. But this doesn’t happen. When the data for the report for December was pulled there were 886 close transactions. As of this writing there are now 908, doing the math that’s 22 more closed transactions than were on the report.
The month was better than the reporting reflects. December was in some ways a typical December, in others, it was not. How’s that for a filler sentence.
Average Sale Price increased quite a bit for a single month. Why? usually it is because a few homes over the million mark were closed during the month. This was true, the data indicates there were 5 homes sold in December over the million mark. Two between 1 and 1.2 million, Two between 1.25 and 1.5 million and One between 2 and 2.9 million dollars. Those 5 sales are more than enough to raise the average sale price by almost $14,000 in December
Total Units were discussed above. there were 157 officially fewer and 135 actually fewer transactions at this point. December is typically a slower month. Holidays and travel seem to cut into the home buying in December, go figure.
Pending Contracts reflects this attention place elsewhere. But it is a bit of a concern that it dropped by over 300 in Nov. and is down another 100 in December. The Extension & Expansion of the Tax Credit act, bought potential buyers “more time” and they don’t have a sense of urgency. Interest Rates are climbing, but honestly, most home buyers don’t take interest rates into consideration till they are ready to sign a contract. IMO, that is a mistake. But moving along. . .
Active/New Listings dropped, again, many people don’t want their home to be “show ready” during the holidays. They take a break from the market. Some by taking their home off the market during December; others by delaying listing their home till January. We will know when we see a possible increase in the number of new listings in January.
Median Sale Price reflects the decrease in overall sale price as REO and short sale properties continue to impact the market. It is good to see these properties being removed from the inventory. It is good that they are no longer vacant, or a potential blight on a community.
In the year over year stats I found it interesting that while the average sale price each month for this entire past year have declined (some months by up to $40,000 we actually see in increase in the Average Sale Price from last December. The only place where a minus exists that isn’t a positive (at least for sellers) is the Median Sale Price. In all other categories the numbers rise and fall where we want. New Listings and Active Listings are down. Total Units Sold, Pending Contracts, and Average Sale Price are up over last year.
There was a lot of discussion during the year about the impact of REO and Short Sales on the Inventory. A lot of that was concern that the inventory would go way up and flood the market. That didn’t happen. Why? Because “Price Rules” and many of those properties were priced to sell, or eventually were (in the case of short sales especially). Even with the number of foreclosures up significantly in 2009, the impact on the Tucson real estate market was not significantly negative.
Tomorrow, I’ll post the final Absorption Rates for 2009. Sneak Peak: The overall rate for December came in at 6.79 months of inventory.
Arizona market seems to be moving forward with an increase in home sales and decrease in inventory. I’ve seen some great signs here in the Dallas real estate market. Hopefully Dallas and Tucson as well as other local market will continue to experience positive growth in the next quarter and have a year of recovery….
Although some continue having their doubts, I’m feeling pretty positive about 2010. I’ve been noticing some changes in the market around my area.