Here it is, seemingly that super slow real estate time between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. A time many real estate brokers reserve for business planning, system upgrades and holiday correspondence with their clientele. The 2012 dead season isn't quite that. Oh yes, we are seeing some seasonal slowing. But there are plenty of folks conducting real estate transactions as if it were a busy March or April.
The RMLS just released statistics for the month of November, and the numbers continue to be positive. There are increases in pending sales, closed sales and the median price from a year ago. There were 2.7% more accepted offers in November 2012 than in November 2011. Similarly, closed sales were up 13.9% in November 2012 when compared to November 2011.
Prices continue to show gains. The median year to date sales price rose 5.4% from November 2011 to November 2012 to $233,900 when compared with a median year to date sales price of $221,900 in November 2011.
Inventory, the number of homes available on the market, continues to bump along with 17.3 % fewer new listings than a year ago. We currently have 4.2 months of inventory. That is, at our current rate of sales, it would take 4.2 months to sell all available properties. This is our eighth month with inventory below five months.
In December, in addition to a few investor clients, I'm working with owner occupied buyers and sellers getting a head start on 2013. This involves market analyses on their homes, connecting with a lender to be pre-approved, and starting their search to be poised to buy early in 2013. We often hear clients say they want to buy or sell "after the beginning of the year". Some years this has meant January 2nd and some it has meant March, I'm predicting 2013 is a "January 2nd" sort of a year.
Give me a call at 503-312-8038 or email me at leslievjones@gmail.com if you need to get started.
Read the latest report from RMLS.
