The Cromford Report recently published their mid-June pricing update. Key points are:
- As of June 17th, average $/SF was $86.81 up 2.5% from May 18th
- Pending listings as of the report are averaging $91.15/SF, slightly up from the average list $/SF sold in May suggesting average sales pricing will continue to increase in the next 30 – 50 days
- Mid-point forecast for July is $87.88
As discussed in the report:
… we have already recorded an average 5.7% increase for monthly sales $/SF since the confirmed low point on April 6. Median sales prices reached a confirmed bottom of $115,000 on April 30, and have risen 6.4% to $122,410 since then. Monthly average sales price has recorded a 7.7% increase since April 6.
There is now no doubt that overall average $/SF for monthly sales, monthly average sales price and monthly median sales price are all increasing.
Other points:
- Prices are still falling for luxury homes (above $500K) and short sales, but are a small percentage of sales (but high percentage of active listings)
- Pricing for lender owned homes is rising across the board, up 11.1% since low of $77.17/SF on March 23
- Pricing for “Normal” transactions has stabilized
- Cromford Report sees no indicators that suggest a change in overall pricing trend, supply is decreasing, demand has stabilized at a very high level
- Far fewer very low-priced homes (under $50K) are being offered for sale compared recent past
- Short sales are becoming more common
The Cromford Report has taken a stance as mentioned above that we have hit bottom, and will see rising prices, or possibly a flattening out over a long period of time. Others dispute this claiming that there is a pent up backlog of foreclosures that will be hitting the market to drive prices down again. As noted elsewhere, even if a deluge of bank owned homes come on the market, the demand seems to be so high and supply so short, that it will not make much of a dent, at least over the next few months.
If you need to buy soon, you may want to consider all of the above and move now while rates and prices are still relatively low. Buyers still have the upper hand, especially when negotiating with regular (non-bank) sellers.
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