Good News in the Numbers

Those of you who have followed this blog for any length of time know that I collect and share a number of statistics about my little corner of the market here in the Milford area. For the last year or so; every week, when I looked at the numbers, foreclosures have been running between 40-60 percent of the sales that took place in the previous week. One week, a while back, I even reported that foreclosure sales made up 100% of the sales for the week. It was somewhat depressing, but it was just a reflection of the market and the times.

This week I can report GOOD NEWS! There were only 5 sales out of the 24 that took place last week that involved foreclosed homes - just 21%. That' fantastic and I hope it is an indication of the market turning and of things to come. You can go to my Web site http://www.themilfordteam.com/
for all of the statistics for last week and to get a Y-T-D summery of the market. There are lots of other states there too.

Why this is important is two-fold - 1. the number of foreclosed houses may be dropping locally and 2. it means that lots of regular houses at more normal prices are selling. The later is reflected in the higher Median sold price for last week. In either case it is good news and means that the market may be moving back towards more balance. While it was good for buyers to have so many foreclosed houses on the market, it was pure hell for sellers to have to compete against the low prices that the banks were dumping those houses at. Many buyers discovered that many of those houses weren't all that great of a bargain, when they assessed the shape that many are in.

One week does not a trend make; however, any flicker of hope for a return to a more sane market is worth celebrating. Yea!