The data used to make this table was complied from the data in the RMLS (regional multiple listing service), it is considered reliable but not guaranteed. The numbers are for all residential real estate in the MLS during the month of April 2009.
For the third month in a row the average sales prices have gone up, and for the third month in a row the number of pending sales as gone up. Some of these variations are seasonal. Traditionally there are more home sales in the spring and prices are slightly higher, yet last year we did not see any kind of a spring increase leading me to believe that the market is stabilizing a bit this year. For the first month since August 2008, the number of homes on the market has gone up. I know the national and local media have been reporting huge inventories of unsold homes on the market but the truth is that here in St. Paul the inventory of homes for sale is a little more of half of what it was last August.
A close look at the numbers indicated that there are fewer foreclosures. At one point 40% of the homes on the market were in some stage of foreclosure. When I went to look for the numbers this month I came up with a small number of foreclosures. I don't believe the data because about 35 to 40% of the homes I showed last month were in some stage of foreclosure leading me to conclude that local agents are not always putting the information in our MLS by selecting the foreclosure or short sale Yes/No option.
Foreclosure data has been hard to track because up until recently the only way we could tell if a home was in foreclosure was by carefully reading agent remarks and searching for phrases like "corporate owned". The system was changed so that there are now fields in the database for foreclosure of short sale but like I said I question that they are being used consistently.It is time consuming to go through all the comments and check but I may do that soon so I can get a better handle on the foreclosure situation. The MLS has the most data, and the most accurate data in it for getting local numbers.
There are bargains out there and the interest rates are oh so low. For some this will be a good time to buy, for others it will not be. It is still a little rough out there for sellers. They are selling more quickly but sellers are often disappointed in the dollar amounts they are offered. The buyers who are buying are bargain hunting.
Click the link to see numbers like these from prior months.
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Are these statistics correct? The average sale price is only 83% of the average listing price. In past months this ratio has always been around 93 – 97%. What is different about April that the ratio is only 83%?
Fence sitting buyer – I can double check the numbers. They came from the MLS but I won’t say it is impossible to make a mistake when downloading them. My sense is that the difference between list price and sale price has grown a bit in the last month or two. buyers are looking for bargains
Hi Teresa,
Actually, these list/sale price ratios seem all over the map. It appears to be driven by location. Some areas, sales prices are well over the listing price (Downtown Capital Heights) whereas some areas have sales prices almost 50% lower than the listing price (Mac/Groveland) – Thats the way it is around here – very, very local variations.