MAY CONTINUES ADA COUNTY REAL ESTATE MARKET RECOVERY
(THE BELOW IS FROM THE ADA COUNTY ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS MARKET REPORT)
May sales were 595 in Ada County, a decrease of 4.9% compared to May 2010.
Historically May sales increase somewhere between 2% and 28% (2006). May 2011 had 11% more sales than April 2011.
Year-to-date 2011 sales are within 3% of YTD 2010.
Of our total sales in May… 53% were distressed….down 3% from April 2011. (Short sales 16% and REO’s 37%). Distressed sales continue to dominate the market…but have show modest decreases each month in 2011.
Pending sales at the end of May were 1002; and increase of 5% from the end of April. This is five consecutive monthly increases. The percentage of pending sales in distress decreased 5% from April 2011 totaling 43% overall. This is our third consecutive month’s decrease. We are now at two consecutive months below 50%.
Last month I wrote that “pending sales at the end of May would be a true “test of our recovery”. Based on that, we are continuing to move forward.
The number of houses available for sale at the end of May was 2,629; unchanged from April and 30% less than last year at this time. Currently available inventory compares to February 2006.
At the same time, the percentage of active inventory that is distressed dropped almost 1% from April to 36%. This is the third consecutive monthly decline and keeps us below the 40% levels set last spring….when we were on the increase.
In Ada County we have 4 months of inventory on hand…historically this number defines a strong “seller’s market”. The price category in shortest supply is <$100,000 with 2.4 months available. This is closely followed by the $100,000 to $120,000 with 2.6 months and $120,000 to $159,000 with 4.3 months. These are the lowest numbers in more than a year!
There is also positive news on some of the higher priced inventory; $500,000 to $699,999 inventory dropped for a second month in a row to 12.
May median home price jumped $11,000 to $144,000; down 7% from May 2010.
New Homes median price for April 2011 was $223,500, an increase of almost 40% from April 2010.
We continue to “benefit” from inventory levels much lower than national average.
