Real Estate Buzz at LongmeadowBiz: Encouraging Home Sales Continued in August

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Encouraging Home Sales Continued in August

Shown below are a series of charts summarizing the latest single family home sales for Longmeadow, Massachusetts. These latest results from January - August 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 August following the trends set earlier this summer...

There were 19 home sales in August 2012 vs. 13 in the year earlier period- a 46% increase (see figure 1 below).
The number of home sales in Longmeadow for the latest May - August period (82) was 44% higher as compared to the same period in 2011 (57) and the highest 4 month total since 2007 (see figure 1 below).

However, recent data shows the continuation of some troubling trends observed last month…

Median prices showed a steep decline in the Jan - August 2012 period from corresponding results in 2011. The median sales price (6 month trailing average) for August 2012 was $272,000 as compared to $315,500 one year ago (14% lower) and $315,000 for all of 2011. This latest median sales price was 22% lower than the peak reached in September 2007 ($350,000). See figures 2 and 3 below.
14 out of 19 homes sold in August (74%) were at prices below the official assessment value. For the first 8 months of 2012, 66% of the home sold (80 out of 121) were at prices below the official assessment value. See figure 3 below.
Total value of homes sold in July was $5.34 million vs. an assessed value of $5.76 million- a difference of 7.2%. For the first 8 months of 2012 the total value was $37.0 million vs. $40.6 million for the year earlier period- a difference of 8.9%.
In August 2012 there were only 2 homes 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.

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Figure 1- Monthly Home Sales- 2006- 2012


Figure 2: Median Sales Prices

Below is a chart showing the relationship between recent Longmeadow real estate Sales Prices and Assessed Values (data obtained from the Vision Appraisal website).