Reno Sparks Residential Market Update

In March, prices changed little as unit sales again rose. Months’ supply of inventory decreased in every category except over $1 million, which jumped from four years to five. Waiting for the higher-end market to capitulate is like waiting for Godot.

March 2009 Sales

Price Range

Current Active

Number Sold

Average Sold Price

Days on Market

Percent Expired

Months Inventory

0-200K

1,978

220

$137,049

131

15%

9

200K-400K

1,307

150

$265,992

138

21%

9

400K-1 Mill

638

22

$571,127

156

25%

29

1 Mill +

186

3

$1,315,000

639

45%

62

 

Current Pendings

Price Range

Number of Short Sales

Total
Pendings

0-200K

312

709

200K-400K

206

386

400K-1 Mill

42

85

1 Mill +

4

11

We had 395 total sales in March 2009 versus 264 in March 2008, an increase in activity of nearly 33%. For the extra curious, 42 of last month’s sales were under $100K out of 510 listed. Last report.

Data courtesy of NNRMLS, March 2009. Includes Stick-Built Single Family, Condo/Townhomes, and Real Property Manufactured Housing in Reno-Sparks (Area 100).

5 comments

  1. smarten

    First of all Diane, what makes you think this crowd knows what you’re talking about when you refer to the play “Waiting for Godot” [and no I didn’t know so I had to Google the term]?

    In the $1M+ category your report that 3 out of 189 properties sold last month, but that they’re now 11 in escrow [and only 4 represent short sales]. Seems to me that maybe there has been a change in this segment of the market.

  2. Diane Cohn

    Smarten, oddly those pending numbers (4 & 11) are the same as last month. Not sure why… I guess progress is slow in the higher end, perhaps due to the difficulty obtaining loans? Or maybe these pendings are dependent upon the sale of other homes? Will have to check that.

  3. Marcus

    Despite all the bad news out there. These numbers could bea lot worse. Unchanged median price with inventory being decreasing from 11 months to 9 months in the 400k < segment?

    When is the last time we saw inventory drop by almost 10% and yet median price sold for stay flat to slightly up?

  4. Reno Ignoramus

    Hey Smarten, perhaps it was before you started reading here, but I rememeber when Diane put up a thread about how some internet blog monitoring group had determined that the discourse on the RRB was equivalent to the Ph.D. level. Remember that, Diane?

    Waiting for Godot is the seminal work by the existentialist writer Samuel Beckett. It is a remarkable work in that Beckett manages to write a play in two acts, that takes about two hours to perform, in which absolutely nothing happens.

    My favorite line from Beckett is the opening sentence in his novel Murphy:
    “The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.”

    Beckett was not referring to the upper end of the Reno housing market in 2009, but rather to life in general.

  5. 3niner

    Per RI:

    “…the discourse on the RRB was equivalent to the Ph.D. level.”

    I don’t know about you, but I generally consider “Ph.D. level” to be a step below professional level.

    🙂

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