January still slow - a great time to list

Here we are with less than a full week to go in January and only 83 homes have sold in the 9 market areas that I track (Townships, including any Villages, Towns or Cities). How slow is that? I went back and looked at the January sales figures for 2013 and 2012 to get some comparison.

In 2012 there were 159 sales in the same markets and in 2013 there were 212. Maybe sales will come roaring in during the last 5 days of thew month, but I doubt that they will double during that time. 

There is some good news in the numbers. Home values have come back significantly. Some examples may be found in the numbers below. Apparently January of last year was bad, too; even though more homes sold during that period.

 For the Milford Market - 

2014 Average Sold Value in January - $297,400 , Ave. Sold Cost per Sq Ft -$135 
2014 Median Sold Value in January  - $291,000 , Median Cost per Sq Ft. - $138 

2013 Average Sold Value in January - $183,206 , Ave. Sold Cost per Sq Ft - $96
2013 Median Sold Value in January - $120,176 , Median Cost per Sq Ft - $88

2012 Average Sold Value in January - $237,003 , Ave Sold Cost per Sq Ft - $100
2102 Median Sold Value in January - $251,570 , Median Sold Cost per Sq Ft - $103

To see the stats on all nine markets, visit www.movetomilford.com and chose the What has sold locally. There are several years worth of sold data for each month and for each market.

Another bit of good news is that foreclosures and short sales dropped off so dramatically that I stopped even tracking them as a percentage of total sales. During the depth of the Great Recession, these sales used to account for over 50% of all sales. Now they are below 10% in all of the markets. 

The real news in the market right now is the tight supply that is driving prices up and driving would-be home buyers crazy. I stopped tracking the inventory levels in these markets a couple of years ago, but I can tell you that they were much higher. In the Milford market, for example, there are only 56 properties for sale in the range that I track (anything for sale above $20K) in both the Township and Village and only 18 of those are actually in the Village. That's probably about half the number that would be active in a "normal" market.

If you are a property owner and have been waiting for the market to come back, the wait is over. The market is back big-time. If you haven't had a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) done be a real estate professional within the last few months you are probably way off on what your house is worth. Get an update CMA and see where you are in this market. Many people who've been putting off listing, so that they can get on with retired life should now be in a position to do so. 

I'll update this report after the month closes, but I suspect that we'll long note January 2014 as not only one of the coldest and snowiest months on record, but also one of the slowest for real estate sales.