Tucson Median Sale Price $161,000
April 24, 2009
Post Tags: Flood Cars , Tucson Median Sale Price , Tucson-Home-Values
Take Your Pick, they are all sold "as is" some are Great Buys!
Median Sale Price
The median sale price March was $165,000 some predicted that was the bottom. But “bottom” talk is always allusive. Right now the median for April is $161,000. Did it really drop another $4,000. Yes, but (don’t you just love yes,but) But we had a number of homes which were foreclosures or sold at auction so far in April. Why does this matter. I mentioned last week the vandalism which has brought the value of many foreclosed homes way down from what they would have been otherwise. This has a negative impact on the median sale price.
Using Flood Cars to Assess Value
No one would use the value assessed to flood cars to set a price on their car (unless it had been in a flood). It seems to be common sense, doesn’t it? But that common sense goes out the window when it comes to real estate. We have all these vandalized homes selling for reduced prices because they have had the kitchen torn out, the furnace, water heater and air conditioning ripped from the home. Ceiling fans removed, toilets broken or filled with tar or cement. Of course the sales value of these homes is going to be greatly reduced.
But do we take this into any consideration when talking about median or average sale price? We do not. They get lumped in with all sales figures.
Creating an Unrealistic Picture
This creates an unrealistic picture of the market. No camera store will compare new cameras to used ones. Also consider if a camera is used and in good condition (a car works the same) it will have a higher value than a camera that has been dropped from a bridge with the disclosure (it doesn’t work).
I was looking for a used camera lens last week. I wanted a Nikor 18mm – 50mm lens. I found several on ebay from $85 to $125. But there was one going for $1.50. A buck fifty? why, it was broken, it didn’t work. Someone might buy it for parts or with the idea they might be able to fix it.
If we were to do an average or median on asking prices for this lens you can see how this one lens would skew the results. Anyone looking at the results without the detailed information would think they should be able to get a used lens for around $50. Really? No not really.
The same is true of buying a house. Looking at the median sale price of the entire Tucson Real Estate market including all these distressed properties creates a false impression of value in the market.
Sellers aren’t going to take lowball offers on their homes which are well maintained and in good shape based on an artifically low median or average sale price. Would You?
