Montgomery Real Estate Sales Statistics - January 2009

Thursday, February 19, 2009

by The Hat Team

The following is a statement by National Association of Realtors^® President Charles McMillan:

"An economic recovery is not possible without a housing recovery, and the stimulus legislation being signed today by President Obama contains two important housing provisions championed by NAR. The final stimulus bill increases the first-time home buyer tax credit to $8,000 and eliminates the repayment requirement of earlier legislation. In addition, the credit availability has been extended until December 1.

“These important provisions will help bring first-time home buyers to the market and reduce housing inventory,” said McMillan. NAR estimates that the home buyer tax provisions could stimulate up to 300,000 additional home sales, helping stabilize home values and potentially preventing some homeowners from being “underwater” on their mortgage, which can often lead to foreclosure.

The bill also reinstates the 2008 higher loan limits for FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “These higher loan limits are important to make mortgages affordable regardless of where you live. This will also help reduce inventory and improve liquidity in the overall mortgage market,” McMillan said.

Let’s take a look at the January sales statistics to see how the Montgomery real estate market looks:

Montgomery real estate sales statistics for January show pending sales decreased by 33% in 2009 compared to January 2008. The average sales price dropped 75% to $57,026 while sold listings were down 18% from 2008. Market times showed a decrease by 35 days or 33% from 2008.

Note that 16 of the January 2009 closed sales were foreclosures. With these distress sales extracted from the data, the average price was $132,269 and the average market time 116 days. Clearly, Montgomery is being badly battered by foreclosures and the consequential deleterious effect on values.