Working some data

I thought I'd give the local politics stuff a break for a minute.

I've been working up some data and wanted to share it with buyers and sellers at this time. For awhile I've been tracking the average home sold and offering average statistics like; bedrooms, bathrooms, garage size, living space square footage, the cost per square foot, the year the home was built, etc.

Also have been keeping tabs on original list price (when the home was introduced to the market), the price listed at the time a contract was accepted, and the final sales price.

Well looking at the data I've gathered so far (I started to track this rigorously since the start of 2007) I've found some interesting trends that I wanted to share and put together a couple of charts for you to review.

The first chart below shows the average living space in square feet of all the single family homes (SFR's) that sold for the particular month and the average cost per square foot of living space in the same month.

Click on chart for larger view

As you see right now you can buy more house for less money. The reason I took a look at this was because the average sold price for SFR's in May jumped up again after it was down the previous month. The average figure has been going back and forth basically all year long now. What caught my attention was the fact that the average price per square foot was coming down slightly each month.

I'm still working with a small set of numbers... there were 55 closings on SFR's in May (up a little, and I will still do the normal sales report a bit later). Because there aren't hundreds or thousands of units sold it is easy to see when figures seem to be out of whack.

In conclusion the overall average price of the homes might have increased but the telling number is that the price per square foot dropped again. When determining the price you are either going to offer (if you are a buyer) or set the price at (if you are a seller) you will want to pay particular attention to the homes square footage and the average dollar figure per.

The following chart probably doesn't need much explaining, the facts should stand for themselves.

Click on chart for larger view

For three out of the five months reported on the average home conceded over $20,000 to close escrow. The blue part of the bar represents the price reduction from the time the property hit the market to the time it received a contract. The red part of the bar represents further concessions agreed on to close the transaction.

This is why it is important that you look at recently sold data when you are given comparisons. Don't even bother to look at what other sellers are asking for, your only concern if you are a seller is what buyers are willing to pay for. The buyers are speaking loudly and clearly... they are winning... it is not even close.