Here were are at the end of Summer almost. For a lot of people school controls home buying. Unless you are moving a small distance, if you buy now you will have to move your kid just after school starts. Parents don’t often like that. This is in part why June and July are the big sale months usually. But with the $8,000 tax credit, I predict we will still have a healthy sales number compared to most Fall seasons.
So here’s the July Market Action. We are down year to year by 15.2%. I had a couple of clients that I deterred from buying last November. I may have lost them but I don’t feel bad about the advice. Interest rates are lower than they were last fall.
Average sales price is down to $288,600, 3.7% lower than June, and the median price was almost unchanged at $250,000. Inventory has fallen to 7.3 months which is great. We started the year with 19.2 months of inventory. That is the lowest since August 2007. The average sales prices matches Summer of 2005. Four years begone!
Pending sales are better than a year ago while new listings are way down, 3,907 vs 5,237. Does this mean that the fire sale is over? The people who needed to get out are gone or that prices are so low that they are just waiting until foreclosure hits. Time will tell.
Comparing January through July 2009 with last year of the same time:
- Closed sales are down 18.7%
- Pendings decreased 10%
- New listings dropped 23.4%
Other highlights:
- Market time is 143 days.
- SE Pending are up 25.5% over last year
- Lake Oswego Pending sales are up over 41%
- Milwaukie Pendings are down 8.7%
- Total active listings match last year
