Encouraging July results for Longmeadow home sales

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

Highlights

Encouraging results for home sales in Longmeadow continued into July...

• There were 22 home sales in July 2012 vs. 15 in the year earlier period- a 47% increase (see figure 1 below).
  
• The number of home sales in Longmeadow for the May - July period (63) was 43% higher as compared to the same period in 2011 (44) and the highest 3 month total since 2006 (see figure 1 below).

However, further examination of the recent data shows the continuation of some troubling trends…      

• Median prices showed a steep decline in the Jan - July 2012 period from corresponding results in 2011. The median sales price (6 month trailing average) for July 2012 was $265,000 as compared to $320,000 one year ago (17% lower) and $315,000 for all of 2011.  This latest median sales price was 24% lower than the peak reached in September 2007 ($350,000).  See figures 2 and 3 below.
  
• ~65% of the homes sold (66 out of 102) for 2012 YTD were at prices below the official assessment value- see figure 3 below. For the past 3 years a large percentage of homes (~50%) were sold at prices below the official assessment value.
  
• Total value of homes sold in July was $7.03 million vs. an assessed value of $7.35 million- a difference of 4.3%.  For the first 7 months of 2012 the total value was $31.6 million vs. $34.8 million for the year earlier period- a difference of 9.1%.
  
• In July 2012 there was only 1 home sold at a price of $400K or higher.

Historically low mortgage interest rates and attractive prices appear to be helping the Longmeadow real estate market gain some momentum.    Many real estate markets across the country have shown similar strength recently.  Hopefully, employment will increase and consumer confidence will soon improve so that the housing market can become more normalized.

 Figure 1 [click chart to enlarge]

Figure 2- Median Sales Prices

Figure 3- Sales Price vs. Assessed Value

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

Longmeadow FSBO

East Longmeadow FSBO

House for Rent at LongmeadowBiz

LongmeadowBiz.com- Longmeadow's #1 Business and Community website

LongmeadowMA.org- Longmeadow's Newest Website