August Homes Sales Drop From July

The guess a month ago was that matching the July sales of metro Albuquerque single family detached homes during August would be difficult. The premise was the high percentage of June pending sales that turned into July closed sales. The guess was correct. While 81% of June pending sales became closed sales during July, “only” 74% of the July pending sales closed during August. That meant sales of 857 homes during August, a nine percent or 84 unit drop from July. August sales were up 17% from a year ago.
With August pending sales of 1,011 homes down 13% or 1,158 unit from July, it is reasonable to expect that September sales will drop from August. Seasonality may come into play, too, with the standard decline in sales from the summer peak.
The homes sold during August took an average of 60 days to find a new owner, the same as July. The 60-day average sale period remains the year’s quickest.
During August sale average sale prices increased just a bit from July. The median price grew $500 to $182,500 with the average up $1,028 to $223,533. Both the median and average price was up more than 10% from August 2012.
For the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors, which released the August figures September 10, the headline of the month was a 53%, or 62 unit, increase in sales in Rio Rancho as compared to August 2012. The Rio Rancho performance accounted for nearly half of the year over year sales growth during August.
Sales in the east mountain area declined 15 units year over year. GAAR did not mention this.