POSTED FROM A BLOGGER IN RESPONSE TO:
"ASK ME ANYTHING!"
"I'd like to hear more on how the business's in Highlands are weathering the current world financial crisis and for that matter how the Highlands real estate market has been affected."
Firstly, I'll discuss the real estate market trend herein. As for how the businesses have done this season, I'll need a few days to do the research and will post my findings in the next blog.
Comparatively, our market is weathering well. Not surprisingly, the lion's share of our closings have been single family homes. Yet, roughly only 20% of those listed actually sold. Hmmmm. This speaks volumes toward not only our saturated market but also illustrates a lack of urgency to sell. Were our homeowners facing rampant disaster, that number would be much greater.
To my knowledge, there are 4 homes in our market area that have been foreclosed on as of the date of this writing. That is a mere .003% of our entire MLS's residential inventory and a minuscule percentage of the total number of homes here - not anywhere in line with the national figure. And I could be wrong but, I don't believe that any of them are anyone's primary residence. At least not yet anyway! Home values are on a slight decline with an 89% list to sell ratio - not bad in that this shows that Sellers who closed only discounted their asking prices by an average of 11%. Jeez, that's about normal!
Townhouses and Condominiums win the prize for bringing in 95.7% of their asking prices. Furthermore, 42 of them closed this year so we all know what those baby boomers are looking for! And AL (and others) just keeps right on building them.
Commercial property has held its value very well although roughly 10% of the listed properties sold. I don't see this as odd, this figure is in line with a healthy market here.
And lastly, raw land is seeing the biggest discount even though its holding its value to 86%. It's just not moving as well as it has in previous years.
But here is what my instincts tell me and I count on them as much or more than the statistics. Although I monitor the market diligently and have done so for the past 15 years (that's a scary thought!) I listen to the unspoken yet audible attitudes of my clients and customers. For those of us that actually work this business, we're all still out there showing property and closing. In fact, it's been my experience that most people that I have worked with never even bring up the subject of economics. They just want me to find the right property for them, negotiate the best deal and close it. Sometimes I feel like we are just on another planet up here. In an affluent community such as ours, people are less apt to be fearful and are smart enough to capitalize in a down market.
Now Seller's are always another story entirely. They do express their concerns over the economic crisis and rely on me to advise them as to where I see the market heading and what I think we should do to hasten the sale. Ah, it's so rewarding when they listen!
But in all seriousness, we are all aware of the predictions for the continued downward economic spiral and see it plummeting daily. Weathering the storm is tricky business and I will not pretend to know where all of this will lead but can speak only to what we are experiencing today and how this market has responded in the past. And that is, very little change has been evidenced so far in our market although inventory today is at it's peak and price reductions are unprecedented. Yet, these very properties have either sold, are still on the market or are being withdrawn for now. But it's those closing numbers that tell the tale and I have included the bottom lines at the close of this entry along with a year-to-date summary of our market activity.
My greatest concern for this community centers around the local population and their ability to survive economic crisis. Heck, nearly all of them don't even own homes. But that's another issue that I intend to write about in a subsequent blog and I hope not to offend with that but to speak clearly and with candor about the challenges and what I see as viable solutions for the working class right here on this mountain. And that does include 'transplants,' merchants and professionals too, so I am looking forward to interviewing several who are fixtures out there on Main Street and will post the findings as soon as I have them together. I'm thinking pictures will be nice along with their comments, I'll bet they'll go for that.
See you then,
Linda
SOLD AND CLOSED STATISTICS
"ASK ME ANYTHING!"
"I'd like to hear more on how the business's in Highlands are weathering the current world financial crisis and for that matter how the Highlands real estate market has been affected."
Firstly, I'll discuss the real estate market trend herein. As for how the businesses have done this season, I'll need a few days to do the research and will post my findings in the next blog.
Comparatively, our market is weathering well. Not surprisingly, the lion's share of our closings have been single family homes. Yet, roughly only 20% of those listed actually sold. Hmmmm. This speaks volumes toward not only our saturated market but also illustrates a lack of urgency to sell. Were our homeowners facing rampant disaster, that number would be much greater.
To my knowledge, there are 4 homes in our market area that have been foreclosed on as of the date of this writing. That is a mere .003% of our entire MLS's residential inventory and a minuscule percentage of the total number of homes here - not anywhere in line with the national figure. And I could be wrong but, I don't believe that any of them are anyone's primary residence. At least not yet anyway! Home values are on a slight decline with an 89% list to sell ratio - not bad in that this shows that Sellers who closed only discounted their asking prices by an average of 11%. Jeez, that's about normal!
Townhouses and Condominiums win the prize for bringing in 95.7% of their asking prices. Furthermore, 42 of them closed this year so we all know what those baby boomers are looking for! And AL (and others) just keeps right on building them.
Commercial property has held its value very well although roughly 10% of the listed properties sold. I don't see this as odd, this figure is in line with a healthy market here.
And lastly, raw land is seeing the biggest discount even though its holding its value to 86%. It's just not moving as well as it has in previous years.
But here is what my instincts tell me and I count on them as much or more than the statistics. Although I monitor the market diligently and have done so for the past 15 years (that's a scary thought!) I listen to the unspoken yet audible attitudes of my clients and customers. For those of us that actually work this business, we're all still out there showing property and closing. In fact, it's been my experience that most people that I have worked with never even bring up the subject of economics. They just want me to find the right property for them, negotiate the best deal and close it. Sometimes I feel like we are just on another planet up here. In an affluent community such as ours, people are less apt to be fearful and are smart enough to capitalize in a down market.
Now Seller's are always another story entirely. They do express their concerns over the economic crisis and rely on me to advise them as to where I see the market heading and what I think we should do to hasten the sale. Ah, it's so rewarding when they listen!
But in all seriousness, we are all aware of the predictions for the continued downward economic spiral and see it plummeting daily. Weathering the storm is tricky business and I will not pretend to know where all of this will lead but can speak only to what we are experiencing today and how this market has responded in the past. And that is, very little change has been evidenced so far in our market although inventory today is at it's peak and price reductions are unprecedented. Yet, these very properties have either sold, are still on the market or are being withdrawn for now. But it's those closing numbers that tell the tale and I have included the bottom lines at the close of this entry along with a year-to-date summary of our market activity.
My greatest concern for this community centers around the local population and their ability to survive economic crisis. Heck, nearly all of them don't even own homes. But that's another issue that I intend to write about in a subsequent blog and I hope not to offend with that but to speak clearly and with candor about the challenges and what I see as viable solutions for the working class right here on this mountain. And that does include 'transplants,' merchants and professionals too, so I am looking forward to interviewing several who are fixtures out there on Main Street and will post the findings as soon as I have them together. I'm thinking pictures will be nice along with their comments, I'll bet they'll go for that.
See you then,
Linda
SOLD AND CLOSED STATISTICS
JAN 1, 2008 THRU DEC 13, 2008
Key: Average Listing Price, Average Sale Price, List to Sell Variance, List to Sell %
Residential 770444 ~ 629775 ~ 77670 ~ 89.0
Twnhse/Condo 476971 ~ 456293 ~ 20678 ~ 95.7
Commercial 834908 ~ 791867 ~ 43042 ~ 94.8
Land 380682 ~ 329539 ~ 51143 ~ 86.6
Commercial 834908 ~ 791867 ~ 43042 ~ 94.8
Land 380682 ~ 329539 ~ 51143 ~ 86.6
Active Listings
Residential 1249
Townhouse/Condo 183
Commercial 109
Land 1813
TOTAL 3354
Under Contract
Residential 253
Townhouse/Condo 45
Commercial 15
Land 116
TOTAL 429
Closed Listings
Residential 244
Townhouse/Condo 42
Commercial 12
Land 127
TOTAL 425
(Data via the Highlands-Cashiers Multiple Listing Service)
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