Home Sales Continue Summer Slide

As we have anticipated from our previous reports on the real estate market, home sales continue to slide during the hot summer months in Tallahassee. With so many of the would-be homebuyers not able to first sell their current homes, the number of buyers in the market continues to decline.

The first graph shows closed home sales in the Tallahassee MLS, and we are now looking like we could be heading to a new market bottom. The previous low was set in August of 2009, when daily closed home sales reached an average of just 6 per day. Will we see a new market bottom soon?

When we look to new contracts, the daily number continues to bump along a new market bottom that was established just last month. Often times, the pending home sales report gives us a clue as to what the closed home sales report will look like in the following months, and the news looks somewhat bleak. Currently, the trend of new purchase agreements is about 4 per day in the Tallahassee MLS.

Home Sellers Must Make A Decision

The Tallahassee housing market appears to have formed a noticeable divide between home sellers who are going to sell their homes regardless of the price that the market will bear, and those who are holding on hoping to get buyers to pay more. I think that time will prove the former group to be wise, as they can move on with their lives and buy back into the market when they best see fit.

The following real estate graph measures the trend of the success rate (and failure rate) for home sellers. Currently, about 42% of the homes listed for sale in Tallahassee were sold, meaning that 58% failed to sell. There is still plenty of supply in the housing market, but the falling demand makes the current supply look limitless.

We know from our history of home sales in Tallahassee that the summer months are the most active for homebuyers. This means that as tough as the market is today, seasonal effects are going to make it that much tougher in the coming months. If you want to sell your home, now is as good a time as you will see, and all the signs suggest that you will get your best price if you sell your home right now.