Good News: The number of houses for sale continues to decline. Down 1.3% from last month. Also, the median For Sale price continues to decline Down 0.57% from last month. While the median Sold price increased almost 4% over last month.
Bad News: Only 171 houses were sold during the month of January. This is a sharp decrease from the prior month (a 30% drop from December’s 244 Solds). As Solds continue to decrease; months supply of inventory will continue to climb.
Here are the latest numbers:
| Month and Year | # Homes For Sale | Median Asking $ | # Homes Sold | Median Sold $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Jan 2008 |
4,229 | $328,000 | 171 | $280,000 |
|
Dec 2007 |
4,286 | $329,898 | 244 | $269,450 |
|
Nov 2007 |
4,665 | $329,900 | 231 | $288,195 |
| Oct 2007 | 5,044 | $329,900 | 266 | $288,000 |
| Sept 2007 | 5,188 | $330,000 | 269 | $285,000 |
| Aug 2007 | 5,646 | $336,400 | 348 | $295,000 |
| July 2007 | 5,597 | $339,900 | 351 | $295,995 |
| June 2007 | 5,539 | $340,000 | 345 | $300,000 |
| May 2007 | 5,293 | $345,000 | 412 | $295,250 |
| April 2007 | 5,008 | $349,250 | 378 | $296,000 |
| Mar 2007 | 4,745 | $349,000 | 373 | $294,900 |
| Feb 2007 | 4,488 | $345,000 | 312 | $285,000 |
| Jan 2007 | 4,892 | $347,000 | 324 | $280,000 |
| Dec 2006 | 4,727 | $348,900 | 337 | $290,000 |
| Nov 2006 | 5,350 | $349,900 | 318 | $300,000 |
| Oct 2006 | 5,765 | $349,900 | 409 | $299,900 |
| Sept 2006 | 6,077 | $352,000 | 385 | $299,900 |
| Aug 2006 | 6,350 | $355,000 | 372 | $306,650 |
| July 2006 | 6,408 | $359,900 | 411 | $322,900 |
| June 2006 | 6,440 | $359,900 | 463 | $325,000 |
| May 2006 | 5,955 | $364,900 | 425 | $316,000 |
| April 2006 | 5,202 | $363,700 | 412 | $316,000 |
| Mar 2006 | 4,899 | $365,000 | 434 | $328,000 |
| Feb 2006 | 4,401 | $369,900 | 321 | $317,000 |
| Jan 2006 | 4,245 | $370,000 | 325 | $325,000 |
| Dec 2005 | 4,040 | $375,000 | 385 | $319,900 |
| Nov 2005 | 4,432 | $376,448 | 443 | $331,000 |
| Oct 2005 | 4,694 | $376,700 | 559 | $335,000 |
| Sept 2005 | 4,567 | $380,000 | 603 | $336,500 |
| Aug 2005 | 4,370 | $385,700 | 695 | $334,950 |
| July 2005 | 3,860 | $387,000 | 677 | $345,000 |
| June 2005 | 3,411 | $384,500 | 607 | $335,000 |
| May 2005 | 3,113 | $375,000 | 717 | $326,000 |
| April 2005 | 2,808 | $365,000 | 650 | $315,000 |
| Mar 2005 | 2,611 | $350,000 | 660 | $309,000 |
| Feb 2005 | 2,198 | $348,250 | 411 | $301,000 |
| Jan 2005 | 2,078 | $349,000 | 381 | $295,000 |
Note: The median table above is updated on a monthly basis. The median home price data reported covers the cities of Reno, NV and Sparks, NV. Residential data includes Site/Stick Built and Condo/Townhouse. Data excludes Manufactured/Modular. Data courtesy of the Northern Nevada Regional MLS - February 2008.
4 comments
Again the most important statistic provided is the number of monthly sales. Although more of a decline [at least in my mind] than from November and December, the trend remains down.
How much lower can the number [of monthly sales] drop until there’s essentially no more room to drop? To me the figure’s like unemployment. Once unemployment drops to 3%, there’s essentially no unemployment even though we have a positive number.
I say that at about 125-150 sales/month, we’ve hit bottom even though the numbers are positive. Does that mean the recovery begins from there? Not necessarily because we may go sideways for some period of time. But it probably represents the bottom.
And watch the median sales price to hold firm - again, a meaningless statistic!
And I reiterate - when the number of monthly sales is so low, the median sales price becomes meaningless - just as this month’s median sales price increase is meaningless.
24.7 mos of inventory!
Indeed 24.7 months of inventory. Folks, that ranks Reno right up there with some of the Florida markets as the worst in the country.
As I have been commenting on for quite a while now, we are now down to 4% of listings that are selling. At least we have abandoned the hype that 10% of listings are selling through.
As for the median, as Smarten points out, at some point the number of houses selling drops so low that the median starts to lose its significance. The median for January 2008 is the same as the median for January 2007. $280,000. But only a person who has been living in a cave would not recognize that one’s dollars today buys one a whole lot more house than the same number of dollars did a year ago. For $280,000 one can buy today a much bigger, nicer house than he could have a year ago for the same money. And that is true at pretty much every price point. The notion of a “holding steady” median belies the significant market deterioration that has occured over the past year. And that continues to occur.
Check out the latest numbers from UNV at http://www.nsbdc.org/what/data_statistics/gis/data_downloads/ for the quarter. You can buy a much smaller, nicer house than you could a year ago. The median $/SF for homes sold is down, but not as much as the median SF of homes sold.