February Listings Report (2007)

Okay, only 28 days in February this year so the numbers should look pretty good right?? Well let us see together.

As always the disclaimer...

Disclaimer... all data compiled for this report comes from the WARDEX Data Exchange and does not include any sales activity from outside that resource. All research is done only on single family homes and there is no inclusion of modular homes, commercial properties, or vacant land. The geographical area researched includes; all areas within the boundaries of the city of Kingman, north Kingman, the Hualapai Mountain area, and the Valle Vista subdivisions. Click here to see maps of the included area's.

Listings:

Today total listings available for single family residence equals 681 (up from 679 on February 1, a net gain of two). The rate of new listings did drop this last month down to 3.6 new listings a day in February from a killer 4.9 new listings a day in January.

There were 102 new listings for the month of January (152 in January). 5 homes have entered contract of these new listings, but none of these have closed yet. The average asking price for these new listings is $246,578 (that's up from $236,404 last month). The median asking price is $210,000 (down a little from $216,400 the previous month). I noticed more higher end homes hitting the market in February and that may be the reason for the increase in the average. At least two were $550K and another was listed at $750K which probably skewed the average figures.

The average newly listed home has 3.13 bedrooms, 2.12 baths, and a 2.11 car garage -- and includes 1,725 square feet of living space -- and was built in 1997.

Also to note the average days on market for these 'new' listings in February is 44 days. 44 days?? But isn't there only 28 days in February?? Why yes darling, you are correct. The reason for the higher number is that our days on market figure includes any properties that were re-listed again either by the same broker or another new broker that adds to the total amount of days on the market. This is referred to as cumulative days on market or CDOM. There were 15 such properties included in these figures and all had a CDOM figure of over 200 days.

Units under contract:

48 homes entered into contracts in the month of February (up slighty from 43 the previous month). The average asking price for homes that received contracts was $210,598 (up from $195,985 last month) and the median asking price for February was $199,500 (up from last months $189,900 figure).

The average single family unit included; 3.0 bedrooms, 1.94 bathrooms, and a 1.65 car garage -- and has 1568 square feet of living space -- and was built in 1990. Also, while I don't know the final sales price for these pending contracts, the average seller reduced their initial listing price approximately $9,000 over the course of the listing period to attract buyers.

Conclusions:

Production numbers still lag for this growing community. 1.7 homes a day entered into contract in February trailing new listings by almost 2 homes (I knew I should have gone into real estate 'for sale' sign making last year). Clearly this is still a very strong buyers market and it is my observation that buyers and sellers haven't learned each others language. Buyers want 'X' and sellers are offering 'Y'.

Single Family homes offered as rental units are still available in huge numbers. There is real competition to fill vacancies for these units and rent prices have dropped because of it. This fact, along with restricted options for various loan products for lower income and first time home buyers has made renting a better option for those 'would be' 'could be' buyers. Price of the home is what is going to attract such buyers and right now they are priced out of the market in many cases. Thereby there are far fewer buyers in the market that can actually be approved for a mortgage. Because of these factors I don't see the production levels changing drastically to the positive for sellers relatively soon.

See ya next month!!