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Sudden Valley Real Estate Market Update, August ‘09
The Sudden Valley real estate market is AWESOME!!! That is, IF what you have to sell falls very near or under the 6-month average sale price of $246, 716. The Valley is drawing those first time home buyers eager to take advantage of the 1st Time Home Buyer’s Tax Credit of $8000.
Average time on market for all 67 sales in the past 6 months is 129 days. There are 111 homes actively listed, and those have so far tallied up 144 days on market, average. So we’re seeing about 10 to 11 sales a month, which equates to the current inventory lasting amost a year if nothing else comes on the market.
Currently there are 31 Pending sales in the Valley, giving us a “pending ratio” of just under 22%. That translates to mean that more than 1 in 5 listings has an accepted offer on it and is moving toward closing.
Price per square foot is another metric we use to compare houses, and right now we see the average price per foot of ACTIVE listings at just under $150/foot. Those that have sold, however, are averaging $132/foot. There are always the outliers to be sure, but it’s a significant enough gap when you’ve got 60+ and 100+ houses to use to derive at that average.
One final metric I like to look at is the average sale price to listing price ratio. If a house is listed for $300,000 for example, and sells for $270,000… then we have a 90% sale price/listing price ratio. Occasionally we do see a 90% sale or below… but NOT VERY OFTEN!!! The average is 96.97% of list price.
To a buyer, this means that if you’re serious about buying a hot property before someone else gets it tied up, you better come in with a pretty-close-to-full-price offer. The sellers are expecting that because they’ve seen this statistic.
To a seller, this means that you better be priced REALLY CLOSE to the true market value based on the competition and recent sold homes, or the buyers just aren’t going to come knocking!
If you’ve got a high end home for sale in the Valley, well……. you’ve got my sympathy right now. It’s TOUGH!!! There hasn’t been a single closing of ANY home higher than $400,000 since HALLOWEEN 2008! That’s almost a year ago. In that same time period, 59 homes priced under $250K have closed, with an average price per foot of $130, and an average size of 1589 square feet.
