Jimmy And Annette

With the last throws of summer here and fall not far away the weather should be cooling off. But, it has still been hot and we are still in the pool. Our single family residential sales continue to be hot with 131 SFR sales in August, that's just 10 less than July. Of the 131 sales 59 of them were arms length, meaning non-distressed. Distressed properties had 50 short sales and 22 bank owned (REO). With distressed properties still dominating the market median price continues to decline. Since the end of the second quarter median prices for all SFR sales have fallen 6%, from $139,000 to $132,000. With over 50% of the market being made up of distressed properties median price will continue to decline, however the fall should be slight. On a brighter note the median price for non-distressed properties was $175,000 for August and that is in keeping with the month over month median price for this type of sale. For the past 8 months the median price for non-distressed averages out to $171,500.

Inventory continues to decrease although at a much lower rate. As of September 22^nd the Flagler County Association of Realtors MLS had 1321 SFR listed for sale in the county. At the same time frame July had 1324 SFR for sale. But this is a far cry from the 2100 SFR for sale last November 2008. All property types have decreased in inventory and are starting to flatten out.

Pending home sales (PHS) were down for the second consecutive month, with 575 PHS as of September 22^nd. Distressed properties make up the majority of the PHS with 449 short sales and 27 bank owned properties.

Condo inventory has decreased for another month with 553 currently on the market however the percentage of listed short sales is increasing. Pending Condo sales have increased for the 9^th straight month. Which is good news but with that increase distressed properties have also increased.

With few lenders willing to fund vacant land-residential lot sales continue to flounder. Only 60 sales have been recorded in the FCAR MLS system this year and inventory has been steady, not a lot of fluctuation. Some gated communities have been hit hard with declining prices and are flooded with short sales and bank owned.

Palm Coast Lots (PCL) have returned to a sensible value, approximately $17,000 for a standard dry lot. Salt water and fresh water canal and golf course lots are still feeling out the market.

If you have questions for a particular property please call, 386-931-0487 or toll free 888-355-8959

The below Table shows a month-to-month and year-over-year comparison of single family home sales for 2007, 2008 and 2009. The 2008 and 2009 median prices are with distressed properties removed. The 2007 short sale and REO (distressed properties) data was not available.

For a full list of homes on the market visit our web site www.JimmyAndAnnette.com

We had a bump of 13% in sales of single family residential from 114 in May to 131 in June. Total number of non-distressed SFR sold was 53 with a median price (MP) of $185,000, for short sales sold 54 with a MP of $126,000 and 15 REO sold with a MP of $120,000.

Inventory continues to drop, total active in Flagler County, 4175 down from 4311 in May and residential 1353 down from 1504 in May. Condos are the only property type with increase numbers with 599 up from 585 in May. A small increase month over month but from the first of the year its up 15%, from 514 in January to the current total of 599. At the current rate of sales, 12 a month, we have 50 months of condos on the market.

Pending home sales continue to climb with a current count of 593 single family residential and 44 condos under contract. Of the 593 single family 475 are short sales and 34 are REO. Condo similar of the 44 pending 31 are short sale and 2 are REO. As you can see we are closing our short sales at a pretty good rate. I spoke with an agent in Volusia and they indicated a 3% closing ratio for short sales in Daytona Beach Association.

This post was published to Flagler County Florida Real... at 11:05:11 AM 6/22/2009

There have been a number of reasons to smile so far this month. For one, May sales were up over April with 114 single family residential (SFR) in May and 110 SFR in April. The second reason to smile is the SFR inventory was down for 7 of the past 8 months with a high of 1938 in November 2008 to current low of 1504 for May 2009. A third reason to smile is for Pending Home Sales (PHS); they were up for the 6^th consecutive month to 526 for May. All of these signs are pointing in an upward direction for home sales. Can we thank the lenders for providing loans or have the sales been cash? Of the 114 sales more than half of them have been sold via mortgage. A total of 69 sold with a mortgage while the other 45 were sold for cash. The lenders are giving mortgages to qualified buyers with credit scores of 620 or higher, a job and a down payment.

Nearly 60% of our SFR sold market consists of short sales and REO properties. Of the 114 sales, 46 were short sales and 20 were REO properties for a total of 66 distressed properties. The Median Price (MP) for arms length (market value) sales was $165,000, short sales $128,000 and REO properties was $136,000*. *There were 2 million dollar homes sold last month driving the REO MP up. Without the 2 million dollar sales the REO MP was $125,000. As we continue to slosh our way through the short sales and REO's we are starting to see higher end properties come on the market; currently 30 short sales over $500,000 and 3 over $1 million. Water front (saltwater canal) homes are still declining with a sale price to list price of only 72% telling me buyers are still not wanting to shell out big bucks for salt water homes.

The condo market is okay but not as promising as the SFR market even though we had two consecutive months with 16 sales (April and May) and of the 16 sales only 1 short sale and 1 bank owned (REO). Other good news there are 38 condos currently in pending. However inventory has increased from 528 in November '08 to 585 for May '09 and short sales and bank owned have increased in the same time frame also, short sales rose from 86 to 109 and bank owned jumped from 1 to 29. We will have several months of this type activity and will continue to see a decline in condo prices for the near future.

Residential lots have started to level out, at least the decline is not as severe. There were 12 sales for May and 30 in pending, inventory has decreased from 976 in November '08 to 939 in May '09. But like condos, shorts sales and bank owned have increased during that same time frame, short sales 52 to 80 and bank owned 16 to 47.

Sales of Palm Coast Residential lots continue to increase (23 in April and 19 in May) and inventory has decreased from 1014 in November '08 to 836 in May '09. Short sales and bank owned have remained constant, averaging 20 for short sales and 28 for bank owned. Pending sales for Palm Coast Lot have increased slightly from 23 in December '08 to 29 in May '09. This is most likely due to the Median Price averaging $16,500 for the year.

It is a buyer's market however, for SFR it is starting to turn. If you or someone you know is looking to capitalize on the $8,000 federal credit give us call today.

If you have questions for a particular property please call, 386-931-0487 or toll free 888-355-8959

The below Table shows a month to month and year over year comparison of single family home sales for 2007, 2008 and 2009. The 2008 and 2009 median prices are with distressed properties removed. The 2007 short sale and REO (distressed properties) data was not available.

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Haven't seen that head line? That's because the news media doesn't print news it can't sell. I want to provide my perspective about our county's real estate market as I see it and the numbers from our local Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Real estate is local and when you think about the real estate market that is that's where your focus should be.

As we end the third quarter of 2008 we've had our 7^th straight month with residential sales above 100 units, with August closing out at 113 sales. That's 20 better than August 2007, with 93 sales.

The latest reports from the University of Florida, our state reporting authority, shows our Metropolitan Service Area (MSA), which includes Volusia and Flagler Counties, total number of sales for the month of July were 593 single family homes. Flagler County had 113 of those sales, nearly 20%, in the MSA. Considering the difference of population, over 500,000 for Volusia and over 88,000 for Flagler, that's a big percentage of sales. Our local market is holding its own, even with all the bad press about the real estate market.

Have we seen the end of distressed sales? No, we still have sub-prime loans issued in 2006 that will be resetting in 2009. Are we at the bottom? We may not be at the bottom, but we are bumping along the bottom. Our sales numbers are very similar to 2007 and when we remove the distressed properties (short sales and lender owned) the median price for month to month comparison is not far off. Plus sales have stabilized, prices have come down and inventories of residential properties in Flagler County are hovering around 1900. Below is a side by side comparison for 2007 and 2008.

The 2008 median prices are with distressed properties removed.

2008 2007

Month Sold Median Price Sold Median Price

Jan 53 $160,000 102 $225,000

Feb 102 $177,500 118 $230,000

Mar 105 $190,750 125 $206,500

Apr 116 $205,000 98 $220,000

May 135 $210,000 125 $206,500

Jun 115 $190,000 120 $214,900

Jul 113 $196,700 103 $208,000

Aug 113* $170,300 93 $220,000

Despite what you read in the national papers or the local papers -

It Is, A Great Time to Buy Real Estate in Flagler County! *numbers updated 9/5/08