Monday, July 2, 2012

Longmeadow Real Estate- some bright spots are emerging...

Shown below are a series of charts summarizing the latest single family home sales for Longmeadow, Massachusetts.  These latest results from January - June 2012 include both MLS and FSBO transactions and are based upon public information obtained from the Hampden County Registrar of Deeds website.

Highlights
  • There were 25 home sales in June 2012 vs. 17 in the year earlier period- a 32% increase.  A comparison of the first 6 months of 2012 to the year earlier period shows 80 vs. 71- a 13% increase (see figure 1 below).
  • Sales for the first 6 months of 2012 were the best since 2007 which was the beginning of the real estate market collapse.  Most of this improvement was due to the high number of homes sold in June (25).
  • In June 2012 there were 5 homes sales at prices of $500K or higher and 2 homes > $1,000,000 reversing an earlier trend that found only 2 homes sales at prices of $500K or higher for the January - May 2012 period.
 Further examination of the recent data shows the continuation of some troubling trends…      
  • Median prices showed a steep decline in the Jan - June 2012 period from corresponding results in 2011. The median sales price (6 month trailing average) for June 2012 was $259,600 as compared to $310,000 one year ago (16% lower) and $315,000 for all of 2011.  This latest median sales price was 26% lower than the peak reached in September 2007 ($350,000).  See figures 2 and 3 below.
  • ~68% of the homes sold (54 out of 80) were at prices below the official assessment value- see figure 4 below. For the past 3 years a large percentage of homes (~50%) were sold at prices below the official assessment value.
  • The latest data also show some distress sales with 8 transactions involving bank ownership (foreclosure/ short sales) and a number of estate related sales.
Even with historically low mortgage interest rates and attractive prices, selling a home in the current environment continues to be very difficult.  Hopefully, the latest home sales data is pointing to a bottoming process for Longmeadow real estate and the road ahead will be brighter.
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Figure 1- Longmeadow Home Sales


Figure 2- Median Sales Price (6 month trailing avg.)

Figure 3- Median Sales Price (Annual)
Figure 4- Sales Price vs. Assessment Value

Here is a link to the data for 2006-2012 Real Estate Transactions that were used to develop the above graphs.

LongmeadowBiz.com- Longmeadow's #1 Business and Community website
LongmeadowMA.org- Longmeadow's Newest Website

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