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.

_________________________________________

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).

Figure 3: 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.

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

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

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.

 ___________________________________________________

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.

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