October Stats

So, October stats came in last week and they are on par with September.  The month started off a little stronger at the beginning of the month, but slowed down toward the end of the month.  This is not all that unusual.  There were probably quite a few people that had some issues with financing in September that go pushed to early October.  October sales of existing homes came in at 3457 with an average sale price of $324,000.  Since getting a jumbo loan was and is considerably more difficult these days there is also no real surprise that the average sale price has dropped a bit.  We expect to see the average sale price climb as the mortgage situation gets straightened out.  Looking forward to November we see things staying about the same as October and September.  We expect the number of existing homes sold to be around 3400 for November.

RealtyTrac reports Q3 foreclosures up nearly 34%

An estimated 446,726 properties were hit with foreclosure filings during the third quarter, a 33.9 percent increase from the previous quarter and more than double the number a year ago, according to data aggregator RealtyTrac. Nevada, California and Florida posted the highest rates of foreclosure in the nation, followed by Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana and Texas.  Arizona is ranked 7th with a 203.1% increase over a year ago.  To read the whole article go here.

Oh Canada!

If you think the value of the dollar dropping is all bad, check out this article recently published in The Star, a newspaper out of Toronto. Canadians have some new found money to spend and some of them are looking South for some real estate bargains. Considering this is becoming the best buyer’s market in a long time, I can’t say that I blame them. I recently spoke with real estate broker Marg Scheben-Edey from Ontario. She definitely has seen an increase in interest from the snowbirds in her area. She has even posted about The Star article in her blog. I have personally noticed an increase in Canadians visiting Scottsdale looking for homes. This influx of money from outside the country may be a little shot in the arm for our sagging real estate market. I have talked to others who believe that we will continue to see an increase in snowbird activity from Canada as the Winter gets colder up North. Looks like we might have a good reason to thank our little brother North of the border.

October Sales Equal to September Sales

Considering how bad of a month September was for existing home sales, it is not surprising that sales in October were able to match September.  There were about 3420 existing home sales in October which is on par with September’s sales of 3430.  Typically, October is less than September, but there has really been nothing typical about the current market.  September was affected largely by the credit issues in mid-August it was not surprising to see those sales dip.  October saw the sale of some of those homes that would have sold in September if it weren’t for the credit crunch.  As credit issues subside we should see some increases in home sales.  Unfortunately, we are entering the two slowest months of the year for homes sales, November and December.  As of today there are just over 57,300 active listings in the ARMLS.  At the current sale rate we have over 16 months of inventory.  Of the active listings 48.6% or 27,842 properties are vacant.  Needless to say, until the number of listings declines considerably the market has little chance of improving.