Asheville Real Estate Report May 2011

Buncombe County, May 10, 2011 Residential Real Estate (no vacant land)

Numbers are in folks.  Here’s what we look like:

Active: 3272 (4.07% Up from last month/Down 12.68% from last year)  This is good news.  Hopefully more people who do not REALLY need to sell are not active and delaying market progress.

Contracts Pending: 394 (1.75% down from last month/Down 21.20% from last year) We are at 12% pending ratio which is more than a point down from last year.  We will see this # rise as absorption #’s decline as the market eventually shifts into the next cycle.

Sold Units: 951 (Up 2.9% from last month/Down 13.15% from last year)

Today, there is 20.6 months of inventory on the market, almost identical to last year.

I find it interesting that 74% of the 951 units sold in the past 6 months were below $299,999.   No doubt a reflection of our economy among other factors, finally affordable housing in Buncombe County, many times due to foreclosures or short sales, investors, etc.  I know I am like a kid in a candy store right now.  If you know someone who needs to sell a property and will owner finance, let me know!

I have been looking for signs of stabilization and we may be seeing indications of it.  See this chart of the absorption #’s (months of inventory) from January 2009 to today.  CHART  You will see a very wide deviation and we seem to be leveling off a bit now, which could be a sign that we may be on the front end of the market catching up with the inventory.  Don’t get me wrong, we still have to see more significant improvements, however it is good to see the aggregate picture a bit more stable.  I’ll be keeping a close eye on this.

Please click HERE to see this month’s report and more specifics in your price range of interest.

Now go buy something!!

Asheville Real Estate Residential Report-April 2011

Greetings,

Some quick #’s for Buncombe County as of my last report on April 18, 2011.

 Active listings: UP 6% from last month… DOWN 12.47% from last year

Contracts Pending:  UP 9.56% from last month…DOWN 21.22% from last year

Past 6 months sold units:  UP 4.05% from last month…DOWN 14.68 from last year

Pending ratio:

Now 12.8%

Last month 12.3%

Last Year 14.2%

35% of sales between $175,000 and $299,999…$175k-$299,999 the highest at 13.42%

To see specific data in your price range of interest see the report HERE

Sales are down, however  inventory is down as well, which is good news.  This is why the absorption shows stable from last year.  We had a slow start to the year, but we seem to be making up for it now.  Things are really busy.  We all hope to bring the market absorbs the present inventory before too much more is added.