Olympic Recovery?

Despite an increase in housing sales for the month of July, The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets created a negative story around the increase in the inventory of houses on the market and the fall of new construction stocks. The highlight of their doom and gloom story was that the Olympic recovery they want to report isn't expected until mid-2009. No kidding.

Let's put these unrealistic expectations in perspective...in Fairfield county the average list price of all 8773 homes currently listed on the market is $935,073. The average sale price is $663,035. All you buyers eager to benefit from the market don't misconstrue these numbers - houses are NOT selling for 70% of list price - the average list price of SOLD homes is $701,985. All these numbers are meaningless without looking at days on the market. The average market time for ACTIVE listings between $200K-$600K is 123 days. The average market time for houses that have SOLD is 96 days.

What does all this mean??

There are too many overpriced houses. Inventory continues to increase because people who have had their houses on the market for 100+ days are not listening to the market and either reducing their price or improving the condition of their home.

People should focus on the increase in sales and see it for what it is...an increase. It's only going to get better. In Fairfield County 417 houses have gone PENDING during the past 30 days as compared to 185 PENDING sales during the 30 days prior. Buyers are buying.

If journalists are using the term "recovery" to mean prices will go back to what they were 5 years ago, they are right we are not going to have an Olympic "recovery" until closer to 2011. However as a REALTOR working with buyers and sellers this is a GREAT market. There is no better time to sell if you want to upgrade your home and no better time to buy - period!