Colorado Springs Real Estate Blog

Here’s a little insight from our good friend Ben Day: This comes from the ERA Shields Stat Pack. Ben and his team do some great work on this every month….Thanks, Ben

HERE IS WHAT IS GOOD TO KNOW, GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS:
GOOD NEWS: Listing Volume was off 18.9%. That’s really good news. The trend of listing stimulus building up our supply may be near completion.
BAD NEWS: Demand was off the same amount, with sales at 722, off 19% from March 2007, a bad March for most sellers and REALTORS.
BAD NEWS: Our average selling price in March was only $236,503, off 7.2% year to date
GOOD NEWS: February’s average selling price was in the basement, so $236,503 was a $10,000 gain over February, so a 3% gain month over month is nice to see

So far, total sales volume year to date is off 24% in Single family/patio and 32% in condos/townhomes. If your pockets are feeling a little light right now, you’re clearly not alone.

Compared to the same time 2007, there are only 96 more total units for sale in our market. Builders still have a little more spec inventory than they would like. In existing home sales (condos and townhomes included) there are only 150 more properties for sale than the same time last year.

Demand is off about 20% from the same time last year, but the market is showing signs of heating up, not cooling off. Despite a lousy March for closed sales, the pending numbers seem to be picking up. PPAR is reporting a pending number that is a good 180 lower than what I quoted yesterday at 685. That is likely 685 new pendings in the month of March, with no January/February carry-over. But it is good to know that there are close to 900 pending sales in the MLS right now and another almost 300 under contracts.

I have not yet run months of inventory, area comparisons or price range comparisons and those numbers will not be pretty. But especially when you are educating buyers, have them take a look on the long-term. Ask what they see happening in supply and demand. ASK, ASK, ASK.

Don’t tell, ASK.

Ask: if supply is stabilizing, and demand among other buyers is low, is that a good thing for you?

Ask: if prices went up $10,000 last month, is that an indication that prices are going down?

Ask: if these are signs the market is stabilizing, and other buyers haven’t figured that out yet, is that good for you or bad for you?

Ask: How many times previously have you bought a home with a 30 year fixed rate at less than 6%?