Pensacola Real Estate

Real Estate Market Update for February 07

Hope you all are having a great day. The weather in Pensacola is heavenly. We'll see a high of about 72 degrees today with bright sunny skies.

Here is another Real Estate Market Update. Take a peek at the numbers for yourself. Then I'll make a few comments to put it in perspective. Here's the link to the latest stats:

http://pensacolaassociationofrealtors.com/STATISTICS.htm


A few observations:

1. There are still a ton of homes on the market. There are more homes on the market right now (6648 as of this morning, March 8th) than there were during any month last year. This number will go up as the spring selling season unfolds. I would not be surprised to see active listings hit near the 7000 mark by mid May.

2. Days on market are directly proportional to the amount of listings on the market. As the number of listings increase, the number of days on market increase.

3. The average price of a home fell about 5% when compared to January. But, when comparing previous years, a drop in sales price from January to February is not uncommon. Hard to say why this is the case, but, I'd speculate that those homes that did not sell prior to the New Year, made significant price reductions in January to "get it sold."

4. There were a few more sales in February than in January. That is almost always the case. Less contracts are written over the Christmas and New Year Holidays. That translates into fewer sales in January.

5. Compared to February 06... Avg Sold Price dropped 13%. There was a 19% drop in the number of sales. The number of active listings rose by 23%.

Putting it all together. I think we are still seeing a correction in pricing. If the Law of Supply and Demand holds true, then we should not be surprised by a further slight decrease in pricing. When will it stop? I hope we are reaching that point. At this moment we are very close to Feb 2005 average sold price. I just took a peak at March 05's average sold price... it is $181,844. I wouldn't be surprised to see another slight drop toward that number...but, nothing drastic.
Still, supply is far exceeding demand. So what I've been saying all along is that those sellers who bought prior to the dramatic increases that began occurring around mid-summer '04, are in a prime position to price their homes aggressively, make a huge profit and then turn around and find the "pick of the litter" from the large inventory of homes on the market!

So, if you or someone you know is thinking of buying or selling, please tell them that you know a great Realtor who can be trusted and who will serve them well!

If you know of someone who would like to be included, please feel free to forward this to them, or have them visit my web site at www.tomrobertson.com and drop me a line.

Sincerely,
Tom Robertson

posted by Tom @ 12:12 PM