September Market Report, Prices Rising!

The average cost per square foot (cpsf) rose 6% in September as compared with the average cpsf in August 2006 on single Family homes in the greater Charlotte Area*, and unit sales were off again. Here are the numbers:
Average Cost /SF Rose from 110.46 to 117.14, 6.05% increase.
Units Sold Fell from 2537 (2006) to 2068, 18.49% decrease
Expired Listings Rose from 439 to 692, a 57% increase, but numerically, less than half the lost sales.

*The counties and area covered are Mecklenburg,Union,Iredell,Cabarrus,Gaston, Lincoln, Stanley, Lake Wylie and Lake Norman (whole)

I also looked at the 3 month period 7/1/2007 to 9/30/2007 versus the same period in 2006-- the three month numbers should give us a better trend line, and indeed the lost number of sales is lower, as is the appreciation.

3 Months Ending September 30
The Average Cost/sf rose from 114.25 to 119.63, an increase of 4.71%
The Units Sold fell from a high of 9013 (2006) to 7848, and 12.93% decrease
Expired Listings rose 49%, again the increased number of expireds is about 50% of the lost sales.

Conclusions? Overall, the market is obviously slower, but as price gains remain steady, I'll have to repeat that the value fundamentals in our market are still steady, rock steady. A 13% decrease in sales is significant, but we know that 7-10% of the buyers are out due to the extinction of sub prime lending, and we know that many folks can't sell their home in the northeast, in the west or Florida. So the result is that with 13% fewer buyers, our prices rose. Excellent!

Now most of you know I don't care for our bogus Days on Market stat, but the Absorption rate is another matter, and based on 4170 Active listings, we have less than 9 weeks of inventory based on September sales. Very Good!

I expect to hear the New Home sales are worse. They were quite late in reacting to the national slowdown that began 2 years ago, so their inventories are high. Once again, if you are buying new, only buy an inventory- at a discount!

I'll be doing area reports in the next several days.