The news with this month’s Ticor numbers is that new home sales shot up 113%. I realize the number of units remains relatively small (81 sales for March), but we haven’t observed a noticeable up tick in new home sales since May of last year. In fact, March activity was up considerable across all three categories (new home sales, resales, and refis) – resulting in a 25% increase in total transactions month over month.
Notices of Default continue to climb. 770 filed for Washoe County in March equates to 35 NODs per day!
click on the charts below to enlarge.
Thank you to our friends at Ticor Title for providing these numbers
Reno Ignoramus
Guy, do you know what the median sales price is for new houses?
Thanks.
Guy Johnson
RI, do you mean “new construction”? If so, no I don’t have that data available.
If, however, you are referring to “new”, as in just listed, the median price for March was $204,700 for the 700 houses listed that month; compared to $238,444 median for all 3,560 Active listings in Reno and Sparks in March.
Reno Ignoramus
Yes Guy I was referring to new construction. I’m just wondering how closely the median for new construction is to the median for resale houses. But thanks.
Sully
RI, For what its worth I have found the new homes are selling for about 25% off peak, whereas the same houses in their developments that have gone short sale or REO are selling for about 50% off peak.
These are in areas that are now selling for 200K – 350K.
DonC
Sully – That’s a big spread between new and resale. Do you think this is because there isn’t as much resale inventory, or does it represent a very strong preference for new, or is it because the peaks are different? Or is it something else?
Sully
Don, it might be timing. One area in particular I see several short sales/REO’s – developer still has model homes open. In the first unit development there still are about 5 new homes for sale (I think there are 100 total in this phase) and 5 short/REO.
The new ones are sitting and the others seem to be moving (not long on market).
I really can’t say, why someone would buy a new house when a block away you can get about a 100K discount, and fix it up the way you want and still be under new price!
GreenNV
RI, the Center for Regional Studies tracks $/SF for both new and existing homes. They still haven’t posted February numbers yet, but they are due soon. http://www.nsbdc.org/what/data_statistics/gis/data_downloads/
B M
The investors outside this area will not invest anymore for a few years. Those local investors (like real estate agents, sorry) cannot afford investing any more. The price has to come down for the average people to afford it.
How many people make enough to support a price of over $1M over here? Very few. That is why those over $1M cannot sell even after the loan problems disappear.