Albuquerque Homes Sales Up, Prices Not

Single family home sales in metro Albuquerque showed a very nice increase during February, according to the monthly market report released this week by the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors.

The price behavior for detached homes was different with median prices continuing down and average prices up just a hair from January—$813, or 0.4%, to $195,165, but down 11.4% from February 2011. The median price, $161,500 for February, was down 2.1% from January and six percent from February 2011. The average price got some help from the sale during the month of one home for $1 million (or more) and three homes in the $750,000 to $999,000 price group.

The sale of 506 detached homes closed during February was the best February since 2008. The performance was 23% above both January 2012 and February 2011.

The pending sales figure jumped to 928 during February, the highest since June 2011 when there were 934 sales pending and a third above February 2011. It was March and April 2010 when pending sales last broke 1,000 for a month. That period was driven by the Obama administration’s first time home buyer tax credit.

The February sales and price performance for condominiums and townhouses followed the detached homes. February sales beat January 2012 and February 2011 by good margins. Both average and median prices were down from January 2012 and February 2011.

While one has to begin to feel a little better about the Albuquerque real estate market, homes aren’t exactly flying off the figurative shelves, even with the decline in the number of homes offered for sale. February marked the fourth month that it has taken an average of 87 days for a home to sell.

Looking ahead to the March sales report, the February pending sales of 928 suggests another decent month. A year ago, 80.1% of February pending sales turned into closed sales during March. February’s closed sales of 506 were 60.5% of January pending sales. If 65% of the February pending sales turn into closed sales during March that would be 603 closed sales. We will see.