Regular readers you already know what real estate professionals consider the three big statistics in residential home sales, but for any newbies out there here's a quick real estate lesson. Days on the market, average sales price and number of home sales in a given time period tell you a lot about the direction of real estate trends in any local market.
Tip 1
When days on the market are increasing this could be the sign of increasing inventory or a slow down in total sales.
Tip 2
Average sales prices tend to increase with a shortage of inventory and decrease with an excess of inventory. That's basic supply and demand for those of us who remember our first economics course.
Tip 3
The number of sales in a given period compared to other similar periods tells you whether the market activity is slowing or heating up.The big number four is months supply of inventory but today we are dealing with the big three not the final four. For those of you chomping at the bit. Here you go. December's big three.
First the bad news. That's the lowest number of December closings since 2002. Now the good news. The average sales price is higher than it was in December of 2008. Want to check my data? The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M keeps track of residential housing statistics for the entire state.
One trend that was happening throughout 2009 is the months supply of inventory was increasing. We started 2009 with about seven months supply of homes on the market and ended the year with about nine months supply. That indicates its probably more of a buyers market than a sellers market but you really have to look at individual neighborhoods in Southeast Texas to know what kind of market it is.
What does 2010 have in store for the Southeast Texas housing market? Today, Jim Gaines an economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M spoke at the Board of Realtors quarterly luncheon. In the next few days I'll be posting some data he shared with us. Its good stuff. Stay tuned.
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