2010 Tallahassee Real Estate Market Update

Today I will be giving you an update on the current condition of Tallahassee's real estate market. Once again I have taken the liberty of doing some research, and using the Tallahassee Board of Realtors MLS statistics, I have pulled and analyzed some very useful data that I will be using here today to give you an idea of how Tallahassee's residential real estate market is doing.

In my research I made year to year comparisons covering and comparing the time periods of May 1st 2009-September 31st 2009 to May 1st 2010-September 31st 2010. To make my data as meaningful as possible, I divided propeties by both price range and location. I divided the properties up into 5 different price ranges and 4 different areas of town. In my research I looked up the number of homes listed during those time periods, the number of homes sold in those time periods, the average sale price of the homes that sold in those time periods, the average number of days it took for a home to sell in those time periods, and the sale price to list price ratio (this is the average % of what a home sold for compared to what it was listed for sale at). I pulled all this data for all properties in each price range and each area of town. Below is a summary of the data that I found categorized by price range and for Tallahassee as a whole.

Real Estate Summary For Tallahassee As a Whole

Overall real estate activity in Tallahassee has decreased from last year. The number of homes listed for sale has decreased by 7.7%. This means that not as many people are trying to sell their homes. Overall home sales in Tallahassee have decreased by 9% this year compared to last year. Home prices in Tallahassee have dropped by 5.25% compared to last year as well. The average time it takes a person to sell his/her house has stayed about the same. Finally the sale price to list price ratio has stayed about the same, which means that the spread between what people are selling their homes for compared to what they are listing their homes for has increased.

Overall Market conditions in Tallahassee have taken a slightly unfavorable turn since last year. The number of homes on the market for sale, the number of homes that have sold, and the average price of homes that have sold have all decreased. Overall this signals weaker demand for homes. This is likely caused from the overall unfavorable economic conditions, especially high unemployment.


$0-$125,000 Price Range

Overall this price range has seen a significant increase in activity since last year. However, prices of homes in this price range have dropped. The number of houses listed for sale this year has increased by an average of 17.2% since last year with the biggest increase occuring in NW Tallahassee. Also, sales of homes in this price range have increased on average by 20.2% with the largest increase in sales also occuring in NW Tallahassee. While sales and listings have increased, prices of of homes in this price range have decreased by an average of 12.2% since last year.

In NE and SW Tallahassee, the average number of days to sell a home went down compared to last year, and in NW and SE Tallahassee, the average number of days it took to sell a home went up.

The sharp rise in shortsales and foreclosure properties in this price range has caused an increase in the number of listings and the number of sales. The fact that more foreclosures and shortsales have come onto the market has also been responsible for prices decreasing. Distressed sales typically sell for less than market value. When these properties sell for below market value, it puts downward pressure on home prices across the board. Right now is a great time to buy a property in this price range because you can find some very good deals.

$125,001-$250,000 price range

Overall this price range has seen a decrease in listing and selling activity compared to last year, but prices have remained stable.

Since last year, the number of homes listed for sale in this price range has decreased by 17%. The number homes sold in this price range has decreased by 22%. The average price of a home sold in this price range has increased very slightly since last year by just 0.91%. The average number of days it took to sell a home in this price range has decreased in all areas except for in NW Tallahassee, where the average days it took to sell a home in this price range increased from 105 days to 114 days. Finally, the sale price to list price ratio stayed about the same for homes in this price range compared to last year.

There are not as many people looking to buy or sell homes in this price range this year compared to last year, but it appears home prices in this price range are leveling off and even slightly increasing. This is great news for people who own homes in this price range.


$250,001-$400,000 Price Range

In this price range, the number of homes sold and the number of homes listed for sale has decreased since last year, but homes in this price range have appreciated in value since last year.

Prices have remained stable in this price range with very slight increases in value coming in NE, SE, and SW Tallahassee. In the NW the average value of homes sold in this price range decreased by 7.4%. The number of homes listed for sale has decreased by 12% since last year. Home sales in this price range have decreased by 10% since last year. The average number of days it has taken to sell a house in this price range has decreased in all areas of town except for in the NW where it increased from 125 days to 194 days.

In this price range, real estate activity has decreased since last year, but prices have remained stable with slight increases. With the exception of NW Tallahassee, it is taking less time to sell a home in this price range than it did last year. This is good news for people with homes in this price range who are looking to sell their homes.


$400,001-$750,000 Price Range

In this price range, there is much less activity as opposed to homes in the lower price ranges. In the SW part of Tallahassee, there were no homes listed or sold in this price range in 2010. In 2009 there were no homes sold and only three listed for sale.

In NW and SE Tallahassee, the number of homes sold stayed the same while sales decreased in NE Tallahassee by 26%. In NW and SE Tallahassee, the number of homes listed for sale slightly decreased while the number of homes listed for sale in NE Tallahassee decreased sharply by 29%. On Average the value of homes in this price range actually increased by an average of 11.5% with bigger gains in value occuring in NE and NW Tallahassee.

$750,000 and up Price Range

In this price range, there was very little activity in both 2009 and in 2010. I will give you a break down of each area for this price range.

In the NE sales remained the same at 5 properties. Listings decreased from 29 to 27 listings. The average sale price decreased from $908,800 to $818,800. The average days on the market to sell a house in this price range increased from 189 days to 223 days. The average sale price to list price ratio decreased from 92.19% to 81.07%.

In NW Tallahassee, there were no homes that sold in this price range in 2010, and only 1 was newly listed during this time period.

In SE Tallahassee there was not any activity in 2009 in this price range. In 2010 there were two homes listed and two homes that sold. The average sale price of these two homes was $792,500 and it took an average of 206 days to sell these homes.

In SW Tallahassee there was not any activity for homes in this price range.

Overall, property values of homes in this price range have gone down and the average days on the market to sell a home in this price range has gone up. This leads me to believe that demand for homes in this price range has come down sharply.

Conclusion

Prices are down, sales are down, and the number of homes that went up for sale went down in 2010 compared to 2009. However, the decrease in home values from 2009 to 2010 was much smaller than the decrease we saw in the couple of preceeding years. This means that things appear to be getting better. Inventory of homes is down, which is good. Sales are down, which is probably due to the fact that the bad economy has decreased housing demand.

There are homes in some price ranges in which their values are leveling off. These are mainly homes priced between $125,000-$400,000. Home values under $125,000 have decreased because of the rising number of foreclosures and short sales in this price range. Home values in the more expensive price ranges are decreasing due to lack of demand for more expensive homes.

Most likely we will continue to see very slight declines in home prices in Tallahassee. It probably won't be long though before demand picks up and home prices start to slowly increase across the board.


If you have any questions about the Tallahasee Real Estate market, please feel free to contact me directly at (850) 567-0037 or email me at nahoom1171@yahoo.com.