Trends in the Coralville Housing Market: 2nd & 3rd Quarter 2011

Coralville IA Real Estate Market: Home Sales in the 2nd and 3rd Quarter 2011

Yesterday I looked at home sales in Iowa City, today its Coralville's turn. The data is from the Iowa City MLS and shows home sales in Coralville in the 2nd and 3rd quarter. This year it makes sense to look at data from the previous quarter to look for a trend in the housing market. Usually the more accurate way to gauge housing trends is to compare to the previous year. That's not working as well for us this year with the first time home buyer tax credit last year skewing the numbers of homes sold low as long as the credit was available and skewing them high when it wasn't.

88 homes sold in Coralville in the 2nd quarter 2011 compared to 160 homes sold in the 2nd Quarter 2010 - That's a 46% decrease in home sales compared to last year for the 2nd quarter. (June 30 was the original deadline to close on a home for the first time homebuyer credit. We had a huge bump in home sales in Coralville due to that).

Now let's fast forward to the 3rd Quarter. 97 homes sold in Coralville in the 3rd Quarter 2011 compared to 73 homes sold in the 3rd Quarter of 2010. That's a 32% increase in home sales compared to last year.

Working on the principle that looking at the previous quarter makes more sense than usual this year, the bottom line is that home sales in Coralville are on the rise. The fact that more homes sold in Coralville in the 3rd quarter than in the 2nd quarter is quite something considering Spring and early Summer are considered to be the peak time of the year for home sales. Of course there's no reason to get too excited just yet. We don't have pre-meltdown numbers here. What we do have is a sign that buyers are gaining confidence in the housing market again. Home prices in Coralville are great. The 30 year fixed interest rate dropped below 4.00% for the first time on record today. If the amazing weather we're having keeps up there's no reason why this trend shouldn't continue through the Autumn months.

Source for data: Iowa City MLS October 6, 2011

originally posted @ ichomesforsale.com