Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Home Sales Cool For Fall, Continue Above 2014

Seasonality appeared in metro Albuquerque’s real estate market during October as sales of single family detached homes dropped 6.7% from September’s closed sales of 886 homes to 835 in October. The improved market is seen in October’s 10.2% sales increase over the 758 sales in October 2014.
The Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors released the October sales report this afternoon.
Pending sales were 958 homes during October, a seasonal-looking 4.2%, or 42 homes, from 1,000 sales that were pending during September. October saw 83% of the September pending sales turn into closed sales. Pending sales were more than 1,000 homes for seven months ending in September.
Those October sales that closed were on the market an average of 59 days, marking the fifth consecutive month with an average sales period of less than 60 days.
The median sales price of $185,000 during October was up 5.7% from October 2014 and increased 11.4% from October 2013. The median price increased 2.2% from $180,850 in September.
By contrast, the average prices dropped $8,101 from September to $216,252 in October. That was a 3.6% decline. Speculation here, but the decline from September might be partly due to no one dollar million plus priced homes selling during September and punching up the average.
The October sales came in a market where sellers continue to offer less product to buyers. Available listings were 3,763 during October, a 20% drop from October 2014. This was the third month with a year over year inventory decline of around 20%.
Attached homes and condominiums show about the same pattern as the detached homes with closed and pending sales well up from October 2014 and the number of listings down 24% from a year ago.