How’s the real estate market? Well compared to the stock market – I’d say pretty good!
This is actually the most opportunistic market I’ve seen in years.
And I’m very excited about the opportunities for both Buyers and Sellers.
The first-time buyer tax credit of $8000 recently passed by Congress is already jump- starting the activity in the first time buyer price range 0- $200,000.
The great news for sellers is home values have only declined modestly in our area compared to other parts of the country. So now would be an excellent time to make a move up, downsize or head to warmer markets where the deals are fantastic.
New Castle County Real Estate Market for February 2009, had an increase in homes under contract along with an increase in homes sold vs January 2009. In addition we saw a decrease in the number of homes “On the Market” dropping from 3977 to 3866 (3% decrease). This continued a 3 month trend of a lower Month’s Supply of Inventory (MSI). The MSI tells how many months it would take to sell all the homes in the county at the current monthly sales average. The MSI is a calculated by taking the current number of homes on the market divided by the average monthly sales number, with the assumption that no more homes would come on the market over that period. We know that homes will continually be coming on the market, but for the purpose of this calculation we use only the number of homes on the market as of right now. For Example, currently there are 3056 homes on the market with an average monthly sales volume of 360 homes sold. Dividing 3056 by 360 equals the number of months it would take to absorb this inventory or 8.5 months. In a strong seller’s market the MSI could be as low as 2-3 months like what had in 2004-2006. In a strong buyer’s market the MSI, would be anything above 10 months of inventory. I consider the market to be a “Neutral Market” whenever the MSI ranges between 5-7 months.
The median sold price and the average sold price continue to decline. The average sold price for the county in Feb 09 was 235,000 and the median was $200,000 - down from $269,000 and $230,000 respectively, from Feb 2008 numbers.
Download March 2009 Newsletter NCCO report
If you have specific questions on buying, selling or investing - please call me (John Luca) at 302-999-6966. Have a great day - I'm off to shovel a driveway at a vacant home for my seller - we've got a buyer touring it today :)
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