First Month of 2012 Market Report for Properties in New Castle County, Delaware

Since one year ago, real estate sales in New Castle County, Delaware, have continued the same trend which existed at the end of 2011. January listings were up almost 17% compared to one year ago. The good news is that closed sales were up more than 26% and pending sales were up twice that amount, 58%.

Another trend that continued into 2012 was that prices dropped 20%, while days on the market averaged almost 7% higher than the previous year. An anomaly is that single family detached listings were down almost 16%, which reflects what I am seeing with sellers. They are holding their homes off the market that they would really rather sell.

I saw this happen with one of my clients, for whom I did a market analysis showing that they would definitely have to list their house for about $50,000 less than they originally paid for it 3 years ago. They can't afford to do this, and I hope they can hold out for quite a while and hope rental income on the property will ease the pain. It's an awful situation to be in, don't you agree?