Wednesday, October 08, 2008

September Sales Report (2008)

Once again the numbers this month will show that the banks (non humans) have figured out how to sell in this market. For the second month in a row, foreclosed on single family units out-sold traditional sellers (humans) in total.

The sales report was put together as normal including both foreclosed homes and traditional sales on single family units... but I will be doing a couple of follow up posts breaking down numbers a bit further. I even took some time to snap a few photos of a few foreclosed offerings on the market to share in the hope to give the readers further insight on conditions and other factors comparing a bank owned listing vs. a traditional sellers listing.

So here is the sales report for last month... preceded by... of course... 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 and sales in units chart:

The bright side here on this chart is that the spread between new listings and sold listings in a month is much closer than it was this time last year. Closing this gap from either direction would be a good sign for this local market. I hope we see that actually happen sometime next year*.

*[/political rant on] with the way both major party candidates running for president are talking about buying bad loans and having a government official rewriting those loans in the hopes of keeping non performing borrowers in their homes (a position I strongly disagree with), it may actually happen. I'd much rather let it happen on its own though. [/political rant off]

Average listings and sales averages chart:

Another spread that can use some closing and no doubt that potential sellers will have to account for as sales prices continue to diminish.

2005 through 2008 unit sales chart:

Even though production numbers for 2008 have barely outperformed 2007 in five of the months so far this year, overall production will be down making 2008 the worst year for home sales in the time I've been tracking data in this market (2004). The only hope to out perform last years production is pinned on the foreclosure sales. So even if that actually happens... there is no way that anyone can feel any sense of victory. It's a down year no matter how it is sliced.

2005 through 2008 average price chart:

The average price is down nearly 35% from last year. I commented last month that the September figure was lonely... not any longer. Might be get more cozy at those levels (and lower most likely).

2005 through 2008 median price chart:

Median price for September 2008 fell 30% compared to the median for the previous September.

The price range for units sold in September was from $50,000 through $350,000.

Average SFR statistics:

The average home sold in September had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a 1.86 car garage, included 1,474 square feet of living space, and was built in 1996. The average hold sold for an average of $99 per square foot of living space.

It took an average of 108 days of marketing to attract a buyer to come to an agreement and a total of 145 days from the first day of marketing to the close of escrow.

Sellers reduced price $12,314 to attract a buyer on average from the first day of marketing, and conceded another $7,924 to the buyer in the transaction. The total average price concession for the homes sold in September was $20,238 (12.15% total reduction).

Bonus Charts:



Foreclosure Impact:

In terms of units sold, of the 43 sales reported for September -- 22 were listed as foreclosed on (51.1% of units sold).

The price range of foreclosed units sold for September was from $50,00 up to $273,100.

The average price of foreclosed units sold for September was $123,572 (15.5% lower than the overall September figure).

The median price of foreclosed units sold for September was $105,000.

The average foreclosure home sold in September had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a 1.7 car garage, included 1,448 square feet of living space, and was built in 1994. The average hold sold for an average of $85 per square foot of living space. Owners of foreclosed on homes conceded 13% off the initial offering price.

Conclusions:

I said earlier that I would be following up this report with a couple of posts that draw even more stark comparisons to show just how hard the foreclosure sales are dragging down the prices in the market. I'll also be sharing a few photos of some bank owned units that are currently for sale.

The only conclusion that I can draw at this time is that affordability and perceived value are the key for buyers currently in this market. Buyers will get squeezed a bit more I believe as time passes and loans are more difficult to obtain and/or as interest rates rise (banks will have to increase profit margin to help offset some of the losses they have taken).

See you with the follow up posts soon.

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