Tallahassee Condo Sales June 30, 2010

When we look at year to date sales of condominiums and townhouses in the Tallahassee real estate market, we get a feeling that things are nearly “back to normal.”

After all, unit sales appear to be at pre-boom levels, so why shouldn’t we rejoice in a market segment that is posting the same number of sales as was recorded in the past?

Attached Housing Is A Value Issue

The fact is that attached housing is more affordable than single-family detached housing. The land sizes are smaller and thus contribute less to the cost of building new units.

Over time, even without market cycles, we would be seeing the attached housing market become a larger percentage of the entire housing market.

As the cost of land has risen, and the ability to develop land has been reduced, developers have been forced to squeeze more usability out of the existing land.

We will continue to see condominium and townhouse sales grow at a faster rate than single-family detached homes, thus becoming a larger segment of the overall residential market.

For this very reason, condo and townhouse sales reports will show stronger than in the past, as more units are available for purchase.

A better way to gauge the strength of the attached market is to view the supply and demand reports that we publish on a monthly basis.