Year to date home salesYear To Date Home Sales In Dead Heat For Worst Year Ever

The race to see if 2011 ends up being the worst year on record in the Tallahassee real estate market is too close to call, even after we review the results of the October Year To Date Home Sales Report. Currently, there have been 12 more homes sold this year than at the same time last year, and 19 fewer than in 2009.

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Year to date home sales are tighter than could be possibly imagined, but clearly show the distressed state of the market. Our real estate graph below shows an apparent market bottom (hopefully) that was reached in 2009 and continues through this year.

Year To Date Home Sales Graph

In the graph above, the dark crimson bars measure the total number of single family detached home sales through October of each year, while the pink bars show the total number of condominiums and townhouses sold through the same time periods.

One other point is visibly clear in the year to date home sales graph and that is condominiums and townhouses comprise more of the market today than they have in the past. This is important to understand, as many real estate reports try to extrapolate overall market conditions based upon single family home sales alone. This is flawed reporting, because condos and townhomes are no longer a small minority of the market as they were prior to 1990, they are now a large growing segment of the overall housing market.

Condos and Townhouses As A Percentage Of The Housing Market

 As the graph above shows, condos and townhouses were less than 1 in 20 prior to 1990, but currently represent 1 in every 6 sales. Their numbers are growing and we know that we must measure both detached homes and attached homes in our year to date home sales report in order to grasp the overall trend in the Tallahassee real estate market.