Tallahassee's 2010 Housing Report

Hello all,

Today I will be providing you with a current update on Tallahassee's residential real estate market.

I took the liberty once again of doing some research using the market statistics for residential home sales here in Tallahassee. These statistics were provided to me from the Tallahassee Board of Realtors. Specifically I looked up the average sale price, the number of homes sold, the average number of days a house is listed for sale before it sells, the sale price to list price ratio ( what a home actually sells for compared to what it was listed for sale at), and the number of homes sold compared to the number of homes listed for sale. The time period I looked at is from January 1st 2010 through April 31st 2010. I not only looked up these statistics for Tallahassee as a whole, but I also looked at these numbers in each specific quadrant of Tallahassee (Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest).

After I looked up these statistics for 2010, I also looked up these same statistics for the time period of January 1st 2009 through April 31st 2009. I did this because comparing this years market statistics to last years market statistics helps us to see which direction our housing market is headed. The results of my research is below. Again we are comparing the statistics for the time period of January 1st 2010 through April 31st 2010 to the time period of January 1st 2009 to April 31st 2010.

TALLAHASSEE AS A WHOLE

• Number of homes sold has increased by 24% in 2010 compared to 2009
• Home prices have decreased on average by 7.2%
• The number of days the average house is on the market before it sells has increased from 129 days to 142 days
• The sale price/listprice ratio has increased by 1.68%.
• The percentage of homes that sold compared to the average number of listings on the market for sale has increased from 25.33% in 2009 to 31.03% in 2010.

Overall we have had more sales and a decrease in home prices. Homes are now selling closer to what they are listed for, but they are staying on the market longer before they sell. We are now selling more homes compared to how many are up for sale which means the size of Tallahassee's housing inventory is decreasing.

NORTHEAST TALLAHASSEE

• The number of homes sold has increased by 44% in 2010 compared to the same period in 2009
• The average home price in the northeast has decreased by 17.15%
• The average number of days a home in the northeast was listed for sale for before it sold increased from 125 days in 2009 to 138 days in 2010.
• The average sale price/list price ratio went up by 1.64%
• The percentage of homes that sold compared the average number of homes listed for sale increased from 25.75% in 2009 to 37.95% in 2010.

Overall northeast Tallahassee saw a whopping increase in sales activity (largely due to the liquidation sale of the condos at Barrington Park Condos), and a large decrease in home prices. It has taken longer on average to sell a house in the northeast this year, and homes in this area are now selling for closer to what they are listed for sale at. Finally, the inventory of homes has decreased in the northeast this year.

NORTHWEST TALLAHASSEE

• The number of homes sold in 2010 has increased by 34.8% compared to the same time period in 2009.
• The price of the average home in the northwest has decreased by 2.96%
• The average number of days a home stays on the market for sale before it sells has increased from 139 days in 2009 to 141 days in 2010.
• The average sale price/list price ratio has increased by .85% this year
• The number of homes sold compared to the number of homes listed for sale has increased from 20% in 2009 to 25.55% in 2010.

Overall, we have seen a big increase in sales in the northwest part of Tallahassee, and prices have decreased by a small amount on average. Once again, housing inventory on this side of town has decreased, and it has taken just a couple more days on average to get a home sold this year compared to in 2009. With the exception of "number of homes sold." real estate in the northwest has remained pretty stable in 2010 compared to the year prior.

SOUTHEAST TALLAHASSEE

• The number of homes sold on the southeast has decreased by 4.7% compared to the same time period last year
• Prices have come down this year by 14.7% on average compared to last year.
• The number of days on average it has taken to sell a home in 2010 has decreased from 133 days in 2009 to only 116 days in 2010.
• The average sale price of a home compared to the average price a home is listed for sale at has decreased by 1.55%
• The percentage of homes sold compared to homes listed for sale has decreased from 30.88% in 2009 to 29.33% in 2010

Overall the real estate in southeast Tallahassee has gone in a different direction than real estate in Tallahassee as a whole. Sales have decreased, inventory of homes has increased, and it has taken less days on average to sell a home this year compared to last. Prices have decreased which is the only statistic that is the same as the rest of Tallahassee.

Southwest Tallahassee

• The number of sales is exactly the same in 2010 as it was in 2009 on the southeast side of Tallahassee
• The average price of a home has decreased by 11.3% on this side of town this year.
• The average number of days it took to sell a house was 95 in 2010 compared to 99 in 2009.
• Average sale price/list price ratio decreased by .25%
• The number of homes sold compared to the average number of homes listed for sale decreased from 30.88% in 2009 to 29.33% in 2010

Southwest Tallahassee has the least amount of sales activity of any of the other quadrants of Tallahassee. Sales stayed the same, prices decreased, and housing inventory has increased.

CONCLUSION AND FORWARD OUTLOOK

Overall the fundamentals of the real estate market in Tallahassee are looking strong. Sales are up and housing inventory is down in 2010. This has been caused by an increase in demand for housing, which has been caused by several factors including an increase in consumer confidence, decreasing home prices and new loan programs designed to get buyers financed to purchase a home.

Prices have declined, but this is not due to the fundamental principals of demand and supply. In fact, demand has increased and supply has decreased which would lead one to think that prices should have increased this year. This is not the case though. Prices have dropped because of the rising number of distressed sales (short sales and foreclosures) that we have seen this past year. Distressed sales usually sell for below market value which decreases the value of surrounding properties. Once all of the distressed sale properties get sold, our housing market's fundamentals are in place to lead us back to rising real estate values. That could be a while though...possibly a couple years.

If you have any questions about our local real estate market, please feel free to call me at (850) 567-0037 or email me at nahoom1171@yahoo.com

Have a great week!