The Flagstaff real estate market held its own in volume of sales and in the average price of homes sold for the month of August, but the median sales price of homes sold and reported in the multiple-listing-service of the Northern Arizona Association of Realtors® as of September 3, 2007, dropped $9000 (or 3%) from July’s sales median. This still leaves the Flagstaff median home price higher than it was in April. But the typical Flagstaff home sold at a lower price in August than in any month since April, and also almost $50,000 lower than the median price in July of a year ago.
There were 980 homes on the market as of September 3, 2007, including 706 single family homes, 105 townhomes and 81 condos. The average price of a home sold in August was $342,482, and $435,219 for a single family home. The median prices were $290,000 and $375,000, respectively. The total number of homes sold in August, as reported by September 3, was 127, yielding an absorption rate of 7.72 – up only slightly from July and down significantly from June.
Right now, the market makes it tougher to sell a single family home than a townhome – that has been the case in Flagstaff for sometime, but right now it is quite dramatic. The absorption rate for townhomes is 4.7 – meaning if no new listings occurred, it would take less than 5 months to sell all the townhomes on the market at the current rate of sale. There is much more of a selection in single family homes – over 10 months supply! So, buyers in the two markets may be experiencing very different feelings. If a buyer is looking for a single family home, the supply of options could feel limitless. If the buyer is looking for a townhome, the supply is more limited.
I see little change coming in the Flagstaff real estate market over the next few months. There may be a continuing downward drift in prices for single family homes, but with the volume of homes for sale dropping or holding steady – as it did in the last month – prices are unlikely to drop significantly further than they already have. On the other side of the coin, if you want to sell your home, be prepared to price it competitively and “stage” it to the max. Otherwise, the buyers who see it will simply say, “Next!”
Note: The numbers in this analysis are for all residences with Flagstaff mailing addresses, whether or not they are in the city limits of Flagstaff. Statistics are based upon the Northern Arizona multiple-listing-service for all residences sold, including single family, condos, townhomes and manufactured/mobile homes. (MLS sales reports do not include all sales in the market, but are a good representation.)
|
Email to a Friend
