Wilmington Area Mulitple Listing Service Report

August 2010 Multiple Listing Service Report








Many clients have asked me “where do you see the market heading?”

Economic indicators are all over the place, the illusive “shadow inventory” question is always looming, and in New Hanover County alone there are far more active foreclosure files at the County Clerk’s Office than in all of 2009. (with Q4 still remaining.)

Anecdotally, there are some true bright spots in the marketplace. Increased buyer activity has kept me hopping just about seven days a week. The once “dead-zone” (properties between $300k and $800k are starting to see some good showing activity, and even the $1M and up market has seen several closings here in recent weeks; showing activity is up across the board.

~Kirk Pugh



Coldwell Banker Sea Coast continues to dominate the SE North Carolina Regional Market in number of units sold, listing volume and sold volume.



A run of decent economic news and better than expected reports on Consumer Confidence and the August Jobs Report lowered demand in the bond market last week. Bond prices moved lower and mortgage rates pushed higher. Have mortgage rates bottomed out? You are the judge; however, at historically low 30 year rates, now may be the time to move.



Our median sold price continues its monthly climb; we are 2.0% ahead of last month and 5.5% over last year this time. In our rolling 12 months we are 18.2% up in sold units and our average sold price is only down by 1.9%. We are back with sold units that exceed the previous month by 7.8%. August was a close to great month – our average sold price climbed by 1.0% over last month and 1.9% over last August. We were off base on sold units for August by 3 homes – We sold 386 homes in August and last August we sold 390. Our Year to Date shows us that our average sold price is 13.2% ahead in units over last year and only 1.5% behind last year.



In the month of August we saw a decrease of 37 homes in our listing inventory, we have 5,567 homes on the market as of September 1st. This continues to put us in a strong buyer’s market with a listing inventory of over a 14.4 month supply. With the low sales in August this affects our month supply with a change of 2 months from last month. Our average list price has stayed below the $400,000 range for the last year; we are currently at $374,121. In August we saw an increase in our seller concessions, it is now 24.1%. Our average days on the market are 135. The list to sold ratio is 93.6% and is down 1.0% from last month; this number needs to continue to get better. The number of homes that sold in 15 days or less continues to remain very low, 13.0% of August sold homes. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.35% with an average 0.7 points for the week ending September 9, 2010. We are now hitting historic lows in mortgage rates.



Listing Inventory



In August we saw a decrease in listing inventory of 37 units. We are about 131 units over September 1, 2009. We have 5,567 single family homes for sale in our MLS. The average list price of $374,121 is down by $2,931 from last month. The average list price has decreased by 6.9% from September 1, 2009.



Monthly Average Sold Price



Our monthly average sold price is up by .01% from last month and up 1.9% from August 2009. Our average sold price is up by $2,252.00 from last month. August average sold price ($238,258) shows an increase of 1.7% from year end 2009. Our average sold price is up by $4,369 over last August.



Monthly Sold Units



This month’s decline in the number of homes sold when compared to previous year is only down 3 units. The number of sold homes is up 7.8% from last month and down .01% from August 2009. Last month we had 358 sold units and this month 386 sold units, last year in August we had 390 sold units. Due to the First Time Home Buyer increase in sales, a lot of these sales were pushed up and people that might have been planning to buy in July and August moved up their purchase to coincide with the tax credit.



Average Sold Price Year to Date

2003 year end average sale price $ 186,137

2004 year end average sale price $ 210,048

2005 year end average sale price $ 254,080

2006 year end average sale price $ 264,498

2007 year end average sale price $ 273,408

2008 year end average sale price $256,498

2009 year end average sale price $234,379

2010 year to date average sale price $229,073



While our current year to date numbers are lower than Year End 2009 they do show promising signs that our sales are on the upswing. The first eight months of 2010 has a 363 sold unit gain over first eight months of 2009. The average sales price is down 1.5% for the first eight months of 2010 than the first eight months of 2009. Our median sales price is just 1.2% behind 2009.



Rolling 12 months



Another bright spot is the rolling 12 month numbers. When we look at September 1st, 2009 to August 31th, 2010 we have 4,731 sold units and when we compare September 1st, 2008 to August 31th, 2009 we have a 727 unit gain (4,004 sold units). When we look at the same rolling 12 months for average sold price we see that we are only down by 1.9%. So the dates of 9/1/2009 to 8/31/2010 we have an average sold price of $231,880 while from 9/1/2008 to 8/31/2009 we had an average sold price $236,367.



Median Sold Price



Our Median sold price is up 2.0% from last month, about $193,327. While we have not dipped as low as the National Median we seem to have turned the corner while the national median is showing a slight increase.



Pending Sales



A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not yet closed. Sales are typically finalized within one to two months from signing. I look at the total pending units on a regular basis and this is how they chart out. We saw our peak pending numbers about May 3rd. We are actually down 4.1% from last month and we are down just 21.6% from September 11, 2009. With the tax credit benefits expired it will be interesting to see if our sales can improve going into late summer and early fall.



Market Absorption Rate



The number of homes sold in July, 386 divided by the current listing inventory, 5,567 gives us a 14.4 month supply of single family homes. This decreased by 2.0 months from last month.



List to Sold Price Ratio



The average list price of the sold properties is $254,579 and the average sold price is $238,257 for August which gives us a 93.6% list to sold price ratio – a decrease of 1.2% from last month. We have now managed to stay under 95% for over a year.

Seller Concessions – We had 24.1% of sold properties report a sales concession for August, an increase of 2.4%.



Days on Market



The average days on market for the sold properties is now at 135 for August. That is about 4.5 months to keep a property on the market. Only 13.0% of the properties were placed under contract in less than 15 days for the month of August.



Carolina & Kure Beach



There are currently 485 single family homes for sale and this represents a 14 unit decrease over September 1, 2010 and 8.7% of our total WRAR inventory. The average list price is $411,327 and decrease of about $13,672 from August. In August there were 31 homes sold, divide that by the homes available and you have a 15.6 monthly supply of homes in Carolina and Kure Beach. The average sold price for the month of August was $273,731 and is up $1,119 from last month. When we look at our rolling 12 months September 1, 2009 to August 31, 2010 we have 328 homes sold at an average price of $287,459. While September 1, 2008 to August 31, 2009 we had 242 homes sold at an average price of $318,107.



This data was pulled on September 12, 2010, based on information from the Wilmington Regional Association of REALTORS Incorporated, for the period Jan. 1, 2005 through August 31, 2010.



I hope you find this information helpful making your next real estate decision. Our small team consists of just my wife and me (my wife is primarily a seller's agent and I am primarily a buyer's agent) along with our support staff at the office.



We are very fortunate to have one of the top 50 Mortgage Bankers in the country in our office, and we also can provide home warranties for both buyers and sellers. Coldwell Banker is very pleased to have full service insurance brokerage and title insurance services available within our doors. We are truly a one-stop shop for all of you real estate acquisition/disposition needs.



Kind regards,



Kirk Pugh

Broker/REALTOR

Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty

www.searchingwrightsvillebeach.com

910-622-3478