May 2007 Housing Stats

What appears to be a regular feature on this blog, is the monthly rolling out of Big House Data’s housing stats.  Well, let June be no exception!

From the BHD Executive Summary:

The mantra in this market is: price moves homes.  Location, price and condition are the traditional three keys to selling real estate.  Sellers have ultimate control over two of the three.  When condition and price converge in the mind of the buyer, the property sells.  And the stats show that compared to last year’s market, 84% of the buyers are still there. [emphasis added by editor]

84%?  That means that the number of closings this year, compared to last, are down 16%!  Phew.  And that’s just from the first five months of 2006 compared to the first five months of 2007.

For the folks looking for some graphs:

Average List Price

The average list price for a home in Washtenaw County in May 2007 was $207,559.  For the year-to-date, the average list price is down nearly 5% to $223,657, compared to the same five months in 2006.

Average Sale Price

With an average sales price of $212,623, May 2007 saw the year-to-date average sales price drop to $210,730.  That represents a 7.19% drop in the sales price, compared to the same five months last year.

Average List Price v Average Sales Price

This chart is done purely to show how the list price and sales prices are moving from month to month.  What is interesting about this chart is the ‘inversion’ of the list price and the sale price for the month of May.  Watch for sales prices to continue to drop.