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

Iowa City Real Estate Market: Home Sales in the 2nd and 3rd Quarter 2011

Lately in my market reports I've been talking about how the 3rd quarter has picked up considerably. It's difficult to prove that since I didn't have time to do quarterly market reports for the 2nd quarter in June. I'm going to catch up on that now by giving you two for one today with an update on home sales in Iowa City in the 2nd and 3rd quarter.

303 homes sold in Iowa City in the 2nd quarter 2011 compared to 397 homes sold in the 2nd Quarter 2010 - That's a 23% decrease in home sales compared to last year for the 2nd quarter.

Now let's fast forward to the 3rd Quarter. 256 homes sold in Iowa City in the 3rd Quarter 2011 compared to 169 homes sold in the 3rd Quarter of 2010. That's an impressive 51% increase in home sales compared to last year.

When you look at this data there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First of all, any comparison to last year's numbers of homes sold is going to be skewed. As long as the first time homebuyer credit was around it inflated the numbers, once it was gone it had the opposite effect. Real estate is seasonal, that's why we like to look at the statistics based on a comparison to a similar time period in the previous year. That's not working so well for us this year and it really is worthwhile looking at the previous quarter to get a feel for what's going on with housing trends in Iowa City.

Working on the principle that looking at the last quarter makes more sense than usual this year, the bottom line is that home sales in Iowa City are picking up. It's not exactly racing along - 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 Iowa City are great. The interest rate is at a phenomenally low 4.00%. There's no reason why this trend shouldn't continue through the Autumn months, especially if the fabulous weather we're having keeps up!

Source for data: Iowa City MLS October 5, 2011

Originally posted @ ichomesforsale.com