Tallahassee Real Estate Blog

With all the major real estate reporting centers claiming that the Tallahassee real estate market is seeing appreciation, I felt it might be a good time to explain the difference between higher spending and appreciation.

As we look at this first graph, we can see that the average home price in Tallahassee appears to be higher (through February) than it has been in years past.

While this is good and accurate information, I suspect that many people are using this information to declare that home prices are rising in the Tallahassee real estate market. I think that lower mortgage interest rates in Tallahassee have allowed buyers to buy more home for their money, rather than pay more money for a home. In order to demonstrate this point, I downloaded all the Leon County residential sales from the Tallahassee Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service (Tallahassee MLS) for the past twelve months. I then sorted them by price range. The following chart shows residential sales in Leon County compared to homes currently for sale in Leon County.

Note how each price range has four colored bars above it, and a yellow field behind them. I have “blown up” a section of the above graph to show what this information is telling us. In the picture below:

• Point #1. shows red arrows trending downwards. This is the past 12 months, 9 months, 6 months & 3 months sales for each price range. Note how the price per square foot for each price range is falling? I believe this is demonstrating depreciation in each price range.
• Point #2. shows us the yellow field is the current asking price at each price range (presented as price per square foot). Note that the price range of $125,000 - $150,000 has the yellow field closer to the tops of the vertical bars (the asking prices average 9% higher than the previous 3 months sales) as compared to the price range of $250,000 - $300,000 where the yellow field is much higher than the tops of the vertical bars (the asking prices average 20% higher than the previous three months sales).
  

Conclusion on Residential Home Prices In Tallahassee

There are many good buying opportunities in the Tallahassee real estate market. There are also a lot of homes that are over-priced and can be confusing to buyers. The key is to use the modern tools that are available to find the best buys in the Tallahassee real estate market. The graphs above were created using “averages,” but averages are not what a buyer buys. Each home is priced specifically and it takes all the homes for sale in Tallahassee to create the averages. If you want to buy a home in Tallahassee, just look at the homes of the Sellers who are priced to sell, and your selection process will be much simpler and more enjoyable.

As a reminder for those who subscribe to the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog by email, some embedded pictures and videos might not be appearing in your email and you might need to click the title header to go to your browser where all will be visible.

Keep checking out the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog every day for updates that include charts, graphs, and analysis of the Tallahassee real estate market.

If you like this Article then please subscribe to my blog through a full RSS feed. You will be able to stay informed about the happenings in the Tallahassee Real Estate Market. You can also subscribe to this blog and have it delivered by Email.

Joe Manausa is a real estate investor and the Broker and Co-Owner of Century 21 First Realty. He can be reached via e-mail through the Tallahassee Real Estate Website or catch his latest writings on the Tallahassee Florida Real Estate Blog , or by calling (850) 386-2001.

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I have been posting the Tallahassee real estate market charts on the Tallahassee real estate web site for the past week. In doing so, I and many readers were observing that the following chart is a bit baffling.

As we can see above, it appears that prices are rising…. yet we know inventory has risen and unit sales have fallen. What we expect to see is some downward movement on prices. I asked readers of this blog (and others) for opinions on why this was happening and really none of us had a good answer…..

UNTIL

Gooch recommended we look at price per square foot. He reasoned that maybe consumers were able to buy more expensive homes due to falling interest rates, but that maybe they were getting more house. So, this next chart is what  Gooch requested. It shows residential home sales in Leon County by price per square foot, across different price ranges.

Gooch, prices are indeed falling. While this is not the best news in the world, it certainly makes sense with unit sales being down.

So, how are the current asking prices for Tallahassee homes reflecting this?

As we can see from this, with few exceptions, there are many price ranges that have a majority of their homes over-priced. It appears that homes priced between $150K and $200K are priced very reasonably, while homes in higher price ranges seem to be off the mark quite a bit.

Just remember, in every market, their are unrealistic Sellers who ask more for their home than the market is willing to bear. They make the “average” asking price much higher than it would be if only serious sellers were in the market. Today, you can definitely find the serious sellers out there. They are the ones that have their homes priced well below their competition.

As a reminder for those who subscribe to the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog by email, some embedded pictures and videos might not be appearing in your email and you might need to click the title header to go to your browser where all will be visible.

Keep checking out the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog every day for updates that include charts, graphs, and analysis of the Tallahassee real estate market.

If you like this Article then please subscribe to my blog through a full RSS feed. You will be able to stay informed about the happenings in the Tallahassee Real Estate Market. You can also subscribe to this blog and have it delivered by Email.

Joe Manausa is a real estate investor and the Broker and Co-Owner of Century 21 First Realty. He can be reached via e-mail through the Tallahassee Real Estate Website or catch his latest writings on the Tallahassee Florida Real Estate Blog , or by calling (850) 386-2001.

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In yesterday’s blog, I analyzed the Southeast Area of the Tallahassee Real Estate Market for the purpose of demonstrating how to use the Free Monthly Tallahassee Real Estate Market Report that anyone can download from the Century 21 First Realty web site.

Today, we’ll conduct the same analysis on the Southwest Leon County real estate market. The picture below represents the Southwest Section of Leon County. The price ranges are featured on the left, and then 9 columns of data fall to the right of each price range. Those 9 columns are actually three sets of three columns. The first set of three are homes for sale in Southwest Tallahassee (All, New Construction, Resales), the second set of three columns are homes that sold in Southwest Tallahassee in the past twelve months, and the final column displays the amount of homes for sale in Southwest Tallahassee (measured in ‘months’ of supply).

Based upon what the above numbers show us, the Southwest quadrant of the Tallahassee real estate market has the least amount of activity of all the market area segments. With only 418 sales in the past twelve months, there is most likely not enough data to draw as confident of conclusions as we can in the more active areas.

Using this information I would advise somebody who wants to sell a home in Southwest Tallahassee, with a value between $200,000 and $250,000, that they have a whole lot of competition. With 8 comparable resale homes on the market and 3 newly built and available for a total of 11 homes, this price range is going to be very competitive for home owners. The Southwest Tallahassee real estate market sells roughly 1 home per quarter, so a serious seller would need to be the single-best buy in order to get a serious look from buyers in todays market.

We can see a “picture” of this data below, and it does shows that due to such a low sales volume in this area, the chart is all over the place. The months of supply go from as low as 0 and as high as 33 (almost three years worth!).

As a reminder for those who subscribe to the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog by email, some embedded pictures and videos might not be appearing in your email and you might need to click the title header to go to your browser where all will be visible.

Keep checking out the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog every day for updates that include charts, graphs, and analysis of the Tallahassee real estate market.

If you like this Article then please subscribe to my blog through a full RSS feed. You will be able to stay informed about the happenings in the Tallahassee Real Estate Market. You can also subscribe to this blog and have it delivered by Email.

Joe Manausa is a real estate investor and the Broker and Co-Owner of Century 21 First Realty. He can be reached via e-mail through the Tallahassee Real Estate Website or catch his latest writings on the Tallahassee Florida Real Estate Blog , or by calling (850) 386-2001.

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In yesterday’s blog, I analyzed the Northwest Area of the Tallahassee Real Estate Market for the purpose of demonstrating how to use the Free Monthly Tallahassee Real Estate Market Report that anyone can download from the Century 21 First Realty web site.

Today, we’ll conduct the same analysis on the Southeast Leon County real estate market. The picture below represents the Southeast Section of Leon County. The price ranges are featured on the left, and then 9 columns of data fall to the right of each price range. Those 9 columns are actually three sets of three columns. The first set of three are homes for sale in Southeast Tallahassee (All, New Construction, Resales), the second set of three columns are homes that sold in Southeast Tallahassee in the past twelve months, and the final column displays the amount of homes for sale in Southeast Tallahassee (measured in ‘months’ of supply).

Based upon what the above numbers show us, the Southeast quadrant of the Tallahassee real estate market has more over-supply than the Northeast, but less than the Northwest.

Using this information I would advise somebody who wants to sell a home in Southeast Tallahassee, with a value between $200,000 and $250,000, that they have 54 homes that they are competing against, of which 17 are new construction. The Southeast Tallahassee real estate market sells roughly 6 of these homes per month, so a serious seller would need to be one of the best 6 buys in order to get a serious look from buyers in todays market.

We can see a “picture” of this data below, and it does not look nearly as friendly as the Northeast Tallahassee real estate market.

As a reminder for those who subscribe to the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog by email, some embedded pictures and videos might not be appearing in your email and you might need to click the title header to go to your browser where all will be visible.

Keep checking out the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog every day for updates that include charts, graphs, and analysis of the Tallahassee real estate market.

If you like this Article then please subscribe to my blog through a full RSS feed. You will be able to stay informed about the happenings in the Tallahassee Real Estate Market. You can also subscribe to this blog and have it delivered by Email.

Joe Manausa is a real estate investor and the Broker and Co-Owner of Century 21 First Realty. He can be reached via e-mail through the Tallahassee Real Estate Website or catch his latest writings on the Tallahassee Florida Real Estate Blog , or by calling (850) 386-2001.

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In yesterday’s blog, I analyzed the Northeast Area of the Tallahassee Real Estate Market for the purpose of demonstrating how to use the Free Monthly Tallahassee Real Estate Market Report that anyone can download from the Century 21 First Realty web site.

Today, we’ll conduct the same analysis on the Northwest Leon County real estate market. The picture below represents the Northwest Section of Leon County. The price ranges are featured on the left, and then 9 columns of data fall to the right of each price range. Those 9 columns are actually three sets of three columns. The first set of three are homes for sale in Northeast Tallahassee (All, New Construction, Resales), the second set of three columns are homes that sold in Northwest Tallahassee in the past twelve months, and the final column displays the amount of homes for sale in Northwest Tallahassee (measured in ‘months’ of supply).

Based upon what the above numbers show us, the Northwest quadrant of the Tallahassee real estate market has more over-supply than the Northeast in all of the lower price ranges. Generally, the market is balanced when the months of supply fall between 4 and 6 months.

Using this information I would advise somebody who wants to sell a home in Northwest Tallahassee, with a value between $200,000 and $250,000, that they have a lot of competition. With 70 comparable resale homes on the market and half that many again newly built and available for a total of 105 homes, this price range is going to be very competitive for home owners. The Northwest Tallahassee real estate market sells roughly 8 to 9 of these homes per month, so a serious seller would need to be one of the best 9 buys in order to get a serious look from buyers in todays market.

We can see a “picture” of this data below, and it does not look nearly as friendly as the Northeast Tallahassee real estate market.

As a reminder for those who subscribe to the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog by email, some embedded pictures and videos might not be appearing in your email and you might need to click the title header to go to your browser where all will be visible.

Keep checking out the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog every day for updates that include charts, graphs, and analysis of the Tallahassee real estate market.

If you like this Article then please subscribe to my blog through a full RSS feed. You will be able to stay informed about the happenings in the Tallahassee Real Estate Market. You can also subscribe to this blog and have it delivered by Email.

Joe Manausa is a real estate investor and the Broker and Co-Owner of Century 21 First Realty. He can be reached via e-mail through the Tallahassee Real Estate Website or catch his latest writings on the Tallahassee Florida Real Estate Blog , or by calling (850) 386-2001.

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Recently, we began a new feature on our Tallahassee real estate web site with the intent of providing Tallahassee Real Estate Market Data to our visitors. We have requested input from our visitors and from our blog subscribers to help us make this page valuable to everyone in the Tallahassee real estate market.

We have received numerous requests and are now determining the best way to “deliver” on the Tallahassee Real Estate Market Report. I would like to say “thank you” to all who have sent us recommendations and I would encourage everyone to keep the recommendations coming. The easiest way to do that is with a comment on this blog!

One reader asked us to provide a regular update on Tallahassee residential real estate inventory, so we have made the report below something that we will update monthly. Additionally, anyone can download the Tallahassee Real Estate Market Report from this blog link at any time.

march-inventory-report-2008.pdf

As a reminder for those who subscribe to the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog by email, some embedded pictures and videos might not be appearing in your email and you might need to click the title header to go to your browser where all will be visible.

Keep checking out the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog every day for updates that include charts, graphs, and analysis of the Tallahassee real estate market.

If you like this Article then please subscribe to my blog through a full RSS feed. You will be able to stay informed about the happenings in the Tallahassee Real Estate Market. You can also subscribe to this blog and have it delivered by Email.

Joe Manausa is a real estate investor and the Broker and Co-Owner of Century 21 First Realty. He can be reached via e-mail through the Tallahassee Real Estate Website or catch his latest writings on the Tallahassee Florida Real Estate Blog , or by calling (850) 386-2001.

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There has been much discussion about the Tallahassee real estate market, specifically on the number of residential units that are selling and how home prices are moving. There appears to be a consensus that home values have remained relatively stable in the past (our market saw a decline of .25% of the median home price last year), but we are not seeing prices start to adjust downward. A chart of the residential real estate sales in the Tallahassee real estate market shows this:

From the chart above, we can see unit sales dropped, as expected, off of the highs of the boom market. When we segment the residential market between attached and detached housing, we get the following charts.

We can see that the average “attached housing unit” saw a greater drop in the median price than did the attached units. It will be interesting to see the progress of the market in the coming months and years.

So, where do you think the median price is heading?

As a reminder for those who subscribe to the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog by email, some embedded pictures and videos might not be appearing in your email and you might need to click the title header to go to your browser where all will be visible.

Keep checking out the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog every day for updates that include charts, graphs, and analysis of the Tallahassee real estate market.

If you like this Article then please subscribe to my blog through a full RSS feed. You will be able to stay informed about the happenings in the Tallahassee Real Estate Market. You can also subscribe to this blog and have it delivered by Email.

Joe Manausa is a real estate investor and the Broker and Co-Owner of Century 21 First Realty. He can be reached via e-mail through the Tallahassee Real Estate Website or catch his latest writings on the Tallahassee Florida Real Estate Blog , or by calling (850) 386-2001.

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As a reminder for those who subscribe to the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog by email, some embedded pictures and videos might not be appearing in your email and you might need to click the title header to go to your browser where all will be visible.

Keep checking out the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog every day for updates that include charts, graphs, and analysis of the Tallahassee real estate market.

If you like this Article then please subscribe to my blog through a full RSS feed. You will be able to stay informed about the happenings in the Tallahassee Real Estate Market. You can also subscribe to this blog and have it delivered by Email.

Joe Manausa is a real estate investor and the Broker and Co-Owner of Century 21 First Realty. He can be reached via e-mail through the Tallahassee Real Estate Website or catch his latest writings on the Tallahassee Florida Real Estate Blog , or by calling (850) 386-2001.

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often hear that the Tallahassee real estate market is cyclical, but sometimes a picture will show us much more than mere words can communicate.

I decided to pull residential sales in the Tallahassee real estate market from 1991 to the present (December 2007) in order to see what long-term trend could be found. The following graph shows unit sales and average prices of residential properties (single family homes, town houses, & condominiums), reported quarterly.

This chart clearly shows an uptrend in both price of properties as well as the number of units selling in the Tallahassee real estate market. The light-blue shaded area represents the average price while the dark blue line is the linear trend of average price over the past 17 years. Similarly, the red shaded area represents the number of units sold each quarter and the red line represents the unit sales trend.

We can see the affect of seasonality each year in the red shaded area, as there are peaks and valleys corresponding to the different times of years. But if you look closely at the red shaded area, you can also see a rough-ten year cycle. The last up-cycle occurred in 2004-2005, but we can see a similar up-cycle occurring in 1994-1995. I suspect this will be more clear to see in 2015. I hope to see you here.

The up-cycle in 2004-2005 was far greater than a normal cyclical move, having more than our local economy bearing on the situation. Because of this, we should expect a great than normal down-cycle, as we are starting to see with the last-two reported quarters. The fourth quarter of 2007 reported the fewest number of sales out of all the quarters in the entire period. Don’t be surprised to see 2008 follow this pattern, with unit sales not truly rebounding until 2009.

As a reminder for those who subscribe to the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog by email, some embedded pictures and videos might not be appearing in your email and you might need to click the title header to go to your browser where all will be visible.

Keep checking out the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog every day for updates that include charts, graphs, and analysis of the Tallahassee real estate market.

If you like this Article then please subscribe to my blog through a full RSS feed. You will be able to stay informed about the happenings in the Tallahassee Real Estate Market. You can also subscribe to this blog and have it delivered by Email.

Joe Manausa is a real estate investor and the Broker and Co-Owner of Century 21 First Realty. He can be reached via e-mail through the Tallahassee Real Estate Website or catch his latest writings on the Tallahassee Florida Real Estate Blog , or by calling (850) 386-2001.

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A friend of mine was curious about the Tallahassee mobile home market. He wanted to know how much of an impact it was having on the overall Tallahassee real estate market.

I went to the tax data base and pulled all Leon County residential unit sales and first sorted it by unit type and by price range. The following graph shows that the mobile homes are very active below $150,000 (red color).

In order to best see it’s impact on the market, I felt a simple part chart would tell the tale. Each piece of the pie chart below has two numbers in this format XXX, Y%. X stands for the number of units sold, where Y stands for the percent of the entire market. In the chart below, the red pie piece shows 447 mobile home sales were recorded, representing 9% of the entire Tallahassee Real Estate Market.

Finally, we can take a look at the past 17 years of tax records and we find that the mobile home sales are increasing at a fairly substantial rate. The chart below shows, for each year, the number of sales of mobile home units in Leon County (numbers on right scale), the percentage of the residential market that mobile homes consume (left scale), as well as the unit sales trend (green line, right scale).

As a reminder for those who subscribe to the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog by email, some embedded pictures and videos might not be appearing in your email and you might need to click the title header to go to your browser where all will be visible.

Keep checking out the Tallahassee Real Estate Blog every day for updates that include charts, graphs, and analysis of the Tallahassee real estate market.

If you like this Article then please subscribe to my blog through a full RSS feed. You will be able to stay informed about the happenings in the Tallahassee Real Estate Market. You can also subscribe to this blog and have it delivered by Email.

Joe Manausa is a real estate investor and the Broker and Co-Owner of Century 21 First Realty. He can be reached via e-mail through the Tallahassee Real Estate Website or catch his latest writings on the Tallahassee Florida Real Estate Blog , or by calling (850) 386-2001.

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