Abq Homes Sales, Prices Up in December

Amazing.
The metro Albuquerque economy is a mess with private and public sector jobs disappearing. So is the state. The state employees commuting to Santa Fe still have their jobs, unlike many around the state, but there has been no raise in four years.
And single family detached home sales are increasing on both a month-over-month and year-over-year basis in total defiance of seasonal and economic trends. The Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors released the December sales figures this afternoon.
During December, sale closed for 607 metro area single family detached homes. That was 55, or 10%, above November and 84, or 16%, above December 2011. Remember, sales are supposed to get slower as weather gets closer and families are distracted by Christmas. Maybe the December seasonal pattern is the opposite. It is now three consecutive years that December closed sales have increased from November.
Maybe some of that seasonality showed in the 720 December pending sales, which were down 59, or 8%, from November. But those pending sales jumped 19.6%, 118 units, from 602 in December 2011.
In arithmetic terms, the December sales performance has a simple explanation. A higher percentage of November’s pending sales of 779 units turned into sales closed during December. Sales closed during December were 78% of November’s pending. November closed sales were just 61% of pending October sales. October’s closed sales of 673 units were 76% of September’s pending sales.
Median and average sale prices were up from November and from December 2011. The median price was $169,500, a three percent increase from November and up six percent from December 2011. The median price was over $175,000 during five months of 2012, peaking at $175,000 in May and July.
The average price was $211,191, a mere $22 below the year’s highest average of $211,213, reached in May. The December average was three percent more than during November and up eight percent from December 2011.
The sale of two million dollar-plus homes, as compared none a year ago, helped the average.