A couple weeks ago after posting my monthly median sold price report, one of our readers, Josh, asked wouldn’t price per square foot be a better metric to track rather than median price. Josh’s rationale was that the current lack of available credit to enable a purchase of higher price homes was creating an anomaly and consequently depressing median prices as a whole.
Whether one concurs with Josh’s reasoning or not, I like his idea of tracking median price per square foot. In fact, I have posted just such data in the past; however, the last time was back in May of this year. So, Josh’s question has prompted me to update my table (see below).
Not surprisingly, median sold price-per-square-foot values have plummeted in recent months. And although all November sales have not yet been recorded, clearly the price per square foot for homes in Reno and Sparks is now below $130/sq.ft. In fact, prices have now returned to pre-2004 values. [Note: I tried to pull data for 2003, unfortunately prior to 2004 our Sold price-per-square-foot data gets very thin. For example, although there were 509 residential properties sold in December 2003, only 36 of these listings contained a sold price-per-square-foot value. So January 2004 is as far back as I can go for sold $/sq.ft. data on our MLS.]
Thanks for the question, Josh.
|
month – year |
$/sq.ft. |
units sold |
|
November 2008* |
$126.78* |
135* |
|
October 2008 |
$130.06 |
400 |
|
September 2008 |
$135.44 |
400 |
|
August 2008 |
$140.26 |
378 |
|
July 2008 |
$143.75 |
438 |
|
June 2008 |
$146.30 |
413 |
|
May 2008 |
$149.96 |
360 |
|
April 2008 |
$152.35 |
358 |
|
March 2008 |
$148.96 |
264 |
|
February 2008 |
$154.29 |
233 |
|
January 2008 |
$170.23 |
204 |
|
December 2007 |
$165.01 |
266 |
|
November 2007 |
$166.93 |
252 |
|
October 2007 |
$168.08 |
285 |
|
September 2007 |
$173.38 |
301 |
|
August 2007 |
$177.08 |
389 |
|
July 2007 |
$184.21 |
386 |
|
June 2007 |
$181.94 |
397 |
|
May 2007 |
$189.81 |
464 |
|
April 2007 |
$193.42 |
423 |
|
March 2007 |
$190.18 |
404 |
|
February 2007 |
$188.22 |
348 |
|
January 2007 |
$200.41 |
352 |
|
December 2006 |
$194.42 |
375 |
|
November 2006 |
$189.06 |
355 |
|
October 2006 |
$193.42 |
457 |
|
September 2006 |
$192.17 |
444 |
|
August 2006 |
$201.49 |
436 |
|
July 2006 |
$204.32 |
454 |
|
June 2006 |
$207.87 |
523 |
|
May 2006 |
$212.59 |
470 |
|
April 2006 |
$205.77 |
458 |
|
March 2006 |
$207.45 |
494 |
|
February 2006 |
$211.54 |
360 |
|
January 2006 |
$212.43 |
353 |
|
December 2005 |
$209.81 |
421 |
|
November 2005 |
$209.77 |
502 |
|
October 2005 |
$214.29 |
608 |
|
September 2005 |
$213.79 |
661 |
|
August 2005 |
$212.26 |
747 |
|
July 2005 |
$213.49 |
724 |
|
June 2005 |
$209.26 |
847 |
|
May 2005 |
$204.89 |
775 |
|
April 2005 |
$199.81 |
705 |
|
March 2005 |
$193.35 |
719 |
|
February 2005 |
$189.51 |
453 |
|
January 2005 |
$187.38 |
412 |
|
December 2004 |
$184.24 |
549 |
|
November 2004 |
$182.93 |
440 |
|
October 2004 |
$181.81 |
572 |
|
September 2004 |
$178.73 |
765 |
|
August 2004 |
$174.03 |
662 |
|
July 2004 |
$173.14 |
674 |
|
June 2004 |
$164.35 |
655 |
|
May 2004 |
$163.32 |
600 |
|
April 2004 |
$153.25 |
635 |
|
March 2004 |
$146.96 |
600 |
|
February 2004 |
$133.85 |
441 |
|
January 2004 |
$129.09 |
432 |
* The data for November 2008 is incomplete.
Note: Data includes all residential sales reported to the Northern Nevada Regional MLS database (NNRMLS) for MLS area #100 – Reno-Sparks. Data does not include FSBOs (sales made "By Owner") or new home sales that do not participate in the MLS system. Data courtesy of Northern Nevada Regional MLS database (NNRMLS) – November 2008.
Sean
great information Guy. I was asking about this as well. I expect to see under $100/sqft median by the end of next year, maybe even $80
billddrummer
Great data, Guy.
The challenge will be for homebuilders to attempt to build new houses for $100/s.f. Can’t be done.
So, look for a bunch of builders to start cutting back even more sharply as the existing home market crashes around them.
Sully
Stead, Cold Springs, Lemmon Valley etc., are now under 100/ft – some at 70.
I see these areas dropping even further; mainly because of the distance from center of town.
Otherwise the areas with south in their names and Hidden Valley are still asking way above 130/ft.
Sparks is about the only area I have run into averaging around 130ish. And I have been looking everywhere except in the river!
Josh
Guy,
Thanks for the post! I think it is interesting that the price per square foot has dropped so much over the past year. That really tells the story.
This will be a fun figure to track over coming years! Thanks Guy.
BTW I’ve wanted to go to the RRB bar get togethers but missed the past two. Any date on the horizon for your next shindig?
Thanks,
Josh
Guy Johnson
Josh, no plans at the moment for the next meet-up. We’ll post it when we make plans.
jeff
Guy,
Thank you. As others have already stated, this really should be a key metric to watch.
Isabell Glodowski
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