Iowa City Housing Trends: Home Sales in Iowa City December 2010 compared to December 2009

After putting together several year over year market reports earlier in the month I figured it was time I drill it down some more and look at the numbers of homes sold in December in Iowa City. According to the Housing Trends Report released by the Iowa Association of Realtors this week home sales are up in Iowa for December. That's not the the case for Iowa City - Although they're not down either. 47 homes sold in December 2010 compared to 48 in December 2009. That's pretty even. There's a strange phenomena going on at the moment with single family homes sales down and condo sales on the rise. Not really sure what to make of that yet. We'll see in the coming months whether that trend continues.

What's not at all surprising is that prices are down. It's winter. We have winter pricing, plus we have a struggling economy. Although we're lucky around here and a fairly stable economic environment compared to other parts of the country we still have a lot of homes on the market and that means opportunities for buyers. From personal experience I can tell you that despite the freezing temperatures I've been busy since the first of the year, so I wouldn't be surprised if buyers are starting to feel more confident and the trend changes in the coming months. We'll see. That's pure speculation. Watch out for my market reports and we will soon be able to tell from the numbers whether that is indeed the case!

As far as the days on market are concerned, according to data from the Iowa City Area MLS single family homes spend less time on the market than condos. The average number of days for single family homes in 2010 was 93 compared to 117 in 2009. For condos it was an average of 131 days on market in 2010 compared to 109 in 2009. I think the data for days on market is highly manipulated due to expired listings and re-listed properties and would suggest you talk to a Realtor about the actual absorption rate (aka days on market). This is a subject I'll cover in a post in the near future if you want to check back for that.

Source for data: Iowa City Area MLS January 23, 2011

Iowa City Real Estate Market Report - 2010 Compared to 2009

Originally posted @ ichomesforsale.com