According to the Tucson Association of Realtors, the median home price in October was $210,000. This was down 1% year-over-year, and down 8.3% off of the record price of $229,000 set in June 2007. While prices have been up and down in recent months, prices are back to levels first reached in the spring of 2005:
According to Judy Lowe, President of the Tucson Association of Realtors:
For the fifth consecutive month, new contracts opening escrow in ‘07 exceeded the same month in 2006. The October 2007 shows 993 new pending contracts, and the October 2006 shows 782. This indicates there are more buyers in the market finding their dream home and making offers and sellers are more receptive to these offers.
This consistent monthly increase in new contracts pending is reflected in the increase in the October 2007 total closed units of 790 units, an increase of 107 units over Septembers’ number.
Additional good news indicates the Active Listing inventory has declined for the fifth consecutive month, with October ‘07 showing an inventory of 9,313, a decline even when compared to October ‘06. The 2,399 new listings coming into the market are less than the September number, as well as the same month last year.
I have a different view of the increase in pendings. Many homes are staying pending longer as buyers are having difficulty selling their previous residence and/or obtaining new financing. With homes staying pending longer, this causes the number of pendings to rise when sales are in fact down. [See yesterday's post.]
I have no idea what Lowe is talking about when she refers to actives decreasing. Listings have increased every month for the past four months. However, it is true that all of these months are down slightly year-over-year. [October's listings were down .25%.] There were 9,313 this year as opposed to last year’s 9,336.
About the only good news is the increase of sales from September to October, although sales are still down 28% year-over-year. A couple of possible factors for the increase were that the rush to close in August before loan programs were discontinued may have adversely impacted September’s numbers, as well as September having fewer business days. It is unlikely that the month-to-month improvement will be an ongoing trend.
