Wednesday, December 5, 2012

2012- Best Home Sales Year Since 2007

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

Highlights
Encouraging home sales results in Longmeadow continued through November following the trend set earlier this yeear...
  • There were 169 home sales in the January - November 2012 period vs. 133 in the year earlier period- a 24% increase (see figure 1 below).
  • The number of home sales in Longmeadow for the latest January - November  period (169) was the highest total since 2007 (see figure 1 below).
  • Home sales in 2012 are positioned to become the highest total since 2007 when the current housing downturn began.
However, further examination of the recent data shows the continuation of some troubling trends…      
  • Median prices appear to have stabilized at ~ $280,000 after reaching a low point in May at ~ $244,000.  The median sales price (6 month trailing average) for November 2012 was $280,000 as compared to $330,000 one year ago (15.2% lower) and $315,000 for all of 2011.  This latest median sales price was 20% lower than the peak reached in September 2007 ($350,000) (see figure 2 below).
  • For the first 11 months of 2012, 65% of the homes (110 out of 169) were sold below the current assessment value. For the last 3 months (Sept - Nov period), 62% of the homes (30 out of 48) were sold below the current assessment value.  In 2011, 48% of the homes (70 out of 146) were sold below the assessment value (see figure 3 below).
  • So far in 2012 there were only 25 homes (out of 169) that sold at a price of $400K or higher.
Historically low mortgage interest rates and attractive prices continue to help the Longmeadow real estate market gain some momentum with the number of 2012 sales positioned to be highest since 2007. Prices continue to remain soft with the large majority of homes being sold priced less than $400K.

Many r
eal estate markets across the country have shown strength in 2012.  Hopefully, employment will increase and consumer confidence will continue to improve so that the housing market can become more normalized.

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Figure 1
(click chart to enlarge)



Figure 2
Figure 3


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 Community Website

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