Lake Norman NC 2nd Quarter 2009 Sales Analysis

If you are a regular reader of my Lake Norman Real Estate blog, you will know that I provide three different types of sales analysis:

• 2-week snapshots called Hot Sheets for up-to-the minute Lake Norman housing data
• Monthly sales reports which compare it to the previous year and prior month
• Quarterly sales reports which provide two separate reports; an overview of the 2nd quarter and then a break down by price-range.

IMPORTANT FINDINGS

• Our current inventory of active listings has actually dropped by 11%. While they are still too high, this is certainly a move in the right direction.
• The number conditional sales (those that just went under contract) are dramatically higher than last year however the average price has decreased and the average days on market has increased 44%. Please note the average sales price last year was very high due to several high sales that skewed the figure.
• The number of pending sales (those that are ready to close) dropped by 17% but the average price and days on market are almost the same as last year.
• The number of closed sales this past quarter dropped 23% versus the second quarter of 2008. The average price dropped 3% but the average days a home was on the market increased by 43%.
• Our number of months of supply of homes increased from 19.9 to 22.8. Even though our inventory has dropped, our sales dropped even more which results in a higher number of months of supply. As always, keep in mind that a balanced housing market should have between 6-8 months of supply so we current have three times as many homes for sale as we should have. We are definitely still in a buyers market! However, it is nice to see some higher numbers in conditional and pending sales.

2nd Quarter 2009 Lake Norman Home Sales By Price Range

*All statistics are from the Charlotte Regional Multiple Listing Service

This report is probably the most useful for both home buyers and sellers. This is because it enables you to focus on your own price range and size up the competition, the strengths and weaknesses and trends that might help position you best for your future purchase or sale.

For example, let's say you are planning to buy a home in the $600,000 - $1 million price range. While that price range in general is very weak, the homes priced in the $700,000s and the $900,000s have over twice as many months of inventory than the other price ranges. Knowing these are particularly weak, you might look for greater discounts when making your offer. When there are 64 homes on the market in the $900,000s and on average only one sells per month, you can imagine these sellers must be getting pretty anxious.

On the flip side, if you are a seller in this same price range and are on the fence about pricing your home in the low $700,000s or the high $600,000s, clearly you should price your home in the $600,000s where you have a much larger pool of buyers and the least amount of competition (months of supply, not number of homes).

This past quarter, 67.3% of all of the Lake Norman home sales were under $500,000. Only 12.5% of our Lake Norman home sales were $700,000 or higher yet that same price range represents 31.4% of our active listings. As has been the case for several years, our higher end homes sales are extremely slow.

So, pick a price range and take a look at the number of sales, the number of active listings, the average days on the market and the months of supply. This report provides you with the data to focus on your price niche.

RELATED ARTICLES

Lake Norman Real Estate: Why is it so hard to buy a home right now?

Lake Norman Real Estate: The Big Picture

Lake Norman Real Estate's May 2009 Sales Analysis

Lake Norman Real Estate's April 2009 Sales Analysis

Lake Norman Real Estate's 1st Quarter Sales Analysis

Lake Norman Home Buyers, Stop Searching for Homes