Condo and town home prices rising faster than house prices

I had occasion to show a few condominiums to a client this week and it spurred me to post some price data condos and town homes. Regular readers are aware that the price of homes has been increasing over the past several months (see June Medians). But have condos and town homes seen the same increase? Below is the median sales price for condominiums and town homes year-to-date.

Month Median Sales
June $71,000 83
May $74,000 100
April $61,000 70
March $52,000 91
February $59,000 69
January $52,550 72

Though there has been some variability in the median sales price (likely due to the smaller number of sales) the overall YTD trend has been increasing. In fact, June’s median sales price for condos and town homes is up 35 percent over January’s. Compare that to the median sales price for site/stickbuilt houses below…

Month Median Sales
June $170,000 505
May $164,500 521
April $151,100 526
March $149,900 540
February $145,500 465
January $135,000 448

The median sales price for site/stickbuilt house is up 26 percent YTD. So, YTD, prices for condos and town homes have increased to a greater degree than prices for houses. Perhaps this should not be surprising given that, from their bubble-highs, the price of condos and town homes fell much more than the price of houses.

Consider that the peak median sales price for site/stickbuilt houses was $365,000 (reached in January 2006). The low median sales price of $135,000 (hit in January 2012) represents a 63 percent drop peak to trough. Condos and town homes prices peaked in December 2005 at $220,000. The low median sales price for condos occurred in September 2011 and was $46,200 – representing a whopping 79 percent drop from peak to trough.

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