Residential Real Estate Worries

I have had the sense for a while that residential real estate prices were falling again.  In "off the record" conversations, some of my residential agent buddies confirmed that they also had this concern.     Today, I took the time to look at my weekly report of sales and listings from GLAR:   200 Homes Sold Oct 24-31 compared to 307 Homes Sold for the same period Last Year!    A 35% decline in the number of homes sold.  

One week does not make a trend, so I went back to GLAR's previous week's report:  180 Homes Sold Oct 17-23 compared to 310 Homes Sold for the same period Last Year!  A 42% decline in the number of homes sold.  

Week after week, back several weeks, the results were very much the same.   Home sales are down significantly.   By itself, this does not validate my suspicion that home prices are falling.  However if home sales are down and the home inventories are expanding, it would make sense that selling prices of home would be on the decline.   

I am sure that when we examine this in years to come, we will come to conclude that a large part of this was the expiration of the home owner tax credits.   No matter the reason, this does not bode well for the economy in general. 

Still, I hate to sign off on a note of doom and gloom.   So I will remind you that while this may be of concern to the economy in general, it also means that home buyers ought to be in a good position to get a good buy on a home.    

Have a great day, all. 

David

David W. McCoy
Associate Broker
Commonwealth Commercial Real Estate
10444 Bluegrass Pkwy
Louisville, KY  40299

Call me if you would like help with your real estate needs.   I specialize in commercial real estate and handle land, office, industrial, investment and retail properties.    I would love to help with any of your needs.    You can also find me on Twitter @mccoydw