Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Is there any other business going on in Washington D.C. beside National Health Care Reform?  All of us know our elected officials are spending an ornate amount of time on this issue which boils down to nothing more the Health Insurance Reform.  We have to ask the question, “Why don’t they put the petty politics behind them and move onward?” As they say, a camel is an animal that went into a committee as a horse and after the committee finished it came out as a two humped back camel.

The National Association of Realtors’ chief economist Lawrence Yun declared that the sudden upward spike in home sales for October and November surprised us all!  Driven by first-time buyer tax credit, existing home sales for October rose a whopping 10.1% to a seasonally annual adjusted rate of 6.10 million units.  We are now 23.5% above the same time last year which is good news for the housing and real estate industry.  Sales activity nation wide is at the highest pace since February 2007 when it reached an annual 6.55 million.

As many of you know, the tax credit has been extended and expanded until April 2010.  This extension and with a 4.95% interest rate for a 30 year conventional fixed rate mortgage at an all time low,  I expect the upward climb in home sales to continue.  Also, the President is putting renewed pressure on lenders to lend money to small businesses and exiting and potential homeowners. 

Sales activity in Douglas County has been a mixed bag.  Closed sales increased 16.9% and pending sales rose 15% for the fourth strait month when comparing November 2009 with November 2008.  This is good news for us and all our sellers and buyers. However, when we compare November 2009 with October 2009, closed sales declined 3.8%, pending sales were down 23.3% and new listings were down 31.8%.  At this month’s rate of sales, we have over 15 months of inventory of listings for sale. 

The average sales price for November 2009 was down -6% compared to November 2008 ($166,300 v. $176,900).   Also, the average sales price for 2009 year to date is down

-15.6% ($159,200 v. $188,700).  This lowering of sales price is consistent with what we have been seeing all year.  In other words, sellers have to lower their prices to get their properties sold in this type of market or attempt to wait this downward trend out.  New listings for the month of November dropped by -13.5%, so you can see many sellers are deciding to rent their properties or wait.  As we all know, the brutal truth for a seller is understand the current conditions of the real estate market and respond to accordingly.

 Again, I want to wish you, your family and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and many more blessings in 2010.  You deserve it for you have earned it!  Keep all the Military service people in your thoughts and prayers during this special time of the year.

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Greetings:                                           

October was Century 21 National Open House Month which our company participated in. We hosted 81 “Open Houses” last month we had over 150 leads and conducted a home buyers fair.  I was very pleased with our turn out and thank you again for allowing us to host your home.  As you can see, people still want to buy. 

October sales activity was up compared to October of last year in Douglas County. Closed sales increased by 14.5% compared to last year, while pending sales rose 13.9% which is a good sign.  However, our year to date closed sales are down by -7.6%. Interest rates still remain low at the 4.75-5.75% level. Also, many of our sellers are helping with buyers’ closing costs. You have probably already read or heard that the $8000 tax credit for first time homebuyers has been extended until June 30^th of 2010.  Also, a new tax credit of $6500 was enacted which will apply to all of us that make less than $225,000 for married couples and $125,000 for singles. Another requirement is that you must have lived in your residence at least 5 out of the last 8 years. That should help to keep the momentum going in the marketplace.

The average sales price for October 2009 was down -25% compared to last year ($189,600 v $151,000).  However, if you compare the month to month sales activity, the average sales price is up 2.4% ($151,000 v. $147,500).  We are seeing a slight increase in average sales price which is encouraging.  Any upward movement is welcomed in this sales environment.  The National Association of Realtors chief economist is still very cautious about the housing market.  “Most of the wealth today for most families came from the equity they had in their homes which they used  to purchase other consumer goods,” says Lawrence Yun, NAR economist.  However, since that equity is disappearing they can’t afford to go out and buy other goods and services. He goes on to report that sales activity nationwide is at the highest level in over 2 years, since it hit 5.73 million in July 2007.

In Douglas County new listings fell -2.7% so we now have a 14.9 months supply of properties to sell, down from 30.3 months in January of 2009.  That is good news, either seller’s are deciding to rent their properties or they are taking them off the market waiting for things to improve. 

Douglas County continues to suffer in terms of unemployment.  We are now at close to 14% the third highest in the state of Oregon.  Foreclosures mount in times like this and according to Realty Trac, who tracks foreclosures in Douglas County, there were 240 homes repossessed in Douglas County since the first of this year.  As we all know, job creation and job growth is the key to our economy, so encourage employers to hire when they can and buy locally so they can hire additional people. We all have to pull together in order to get through these very difficult times.

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