1st Quarter Report of 2002
Real estate sales for the first quarter of 2002 have been quite strong but not as good as last year’s first quarter. But, 2001 was the “record” best quarter according to the Multiple Listing Statistics. Even so there was a slight increase in closed real estate sales of just over 1% compared to last year. At the same time new real estate listings fell by 9% and the number of pending sales dropped by over 8%. This naturally led to a drop in marketing time of 6 days to an average of 76 days on the market.
Average and median real estate sales prices show very little appreciation comparing the 12 months ending March 2002 to March 2001. Both climbed just 1.3% and 1.5% respectively.
Another interesting statistic is at the end of the 1st quarter there was
an inventory of just 4.9 months of unsold homes on the market. This statistic
is derived from the rate of sales for March and the available supply. The
real estate sales market is considered to be in equilibrium with no upward
or downward pressure when there is an approximate 8-month supply. Unless there
is a sudden increase in the number of listings we are likely to see some upward
movement in home selling prices through the spring and summer months.
