Stats are a funny thing. They are great for identifying trends, however, when not conveyed in the correct context or with the whole story they are also very misleading - case in point, the real estate market. It drives me around the bend when I hear the national news and the national real estate numbers are released, this in an effort to freak-out and scare the heck out of Joe Public! It's a given that the economy is tanking pretty fast and the real estate market is correcting (it had to happen sometime didn't it?) but the numbers reflecting the national trends simply don't mean anything to me when considering the local market.
Here's a recent sampling of details released on our local housing market:
- Local sales are down but the average sales price has continued to rise.
- March home sales were down 12.2 percent but average sales prices were up 4.5 percent.
- For the first quarter, home sales were down 13.8 percent with sales prices up 5.1 percent from last year.
- Sales of existing single-family homes dropped 13.8 percent, but the average selling price rose to 7.9
Last year's price drop was mostly due to building getting scared and dumping their product while they could... that inventory has since been absorbed.
So remember, consider the local market and your local sales figures before you panic... oh, and quit watching the news so much!
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