[click to enlarge]The latest stats for housing sales in Longmeadow do not show any signs of a recovery....
June showed 16 houses sold vs. 23 in June 2007 continuing the trend that has been observed in 2008. For the first six months of 2008, home sales are down 36% vs. the corresponding period in 2007 (64 vs 100).
The median sales price seems to have stabilized at ~ $300,000 for the past four months after dropping from the peak of $360,000 last September- a 17% drop.
Both of these trends (slower sales and lower prices) are following the national trends. Perhaps the sharp decline in median price which appears to have now stabilized is the start of the "bottoming" process.
Sales prices over the past year have correlated pretty well with official assessment values. The average house under $400K has sold at slightly above the official assessment value. 64 out of 160 homes that have sold in the past year have sold at less than the official assessment value.
With year to date sales of 64 homes and a current inventory of ~ 125 homes for sale, the average time to sell a house is now approaching 12 months- certainly not a robust sales environment not matter how you evaluate it. The other watchout is that there are many people in town who have withdrawn their homes from sale and are awaiting the beginning of a better sales climate. When housing market improves, the inventory of homes for sale will likely increase significantly.
Details of Longmeadow Real Estate Transactions for the past two years (2006- 2008) that are used to generate the above charts can be found here.
Hopefully, the report next month will show some better results and some signs of a housing recovery in Longmeadow!
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