How cool is that?
Let's jump right in to my Poinciana Market Report for March 2009.
*****This report will encompass Poinciana Florida zip codes 34758 and 34759 excluding Solivita, Lake Marion Shores and Cypress Woods. This data was pulled form the Mid-Florida Regional Multiple Listing Service on 3-13-09.
Check it out. Inventory is DOWN to 812 properties. Thirty days ago there were 932 properties on the market. That's a decrease of 15%.
Now here's the biggie. There were 152 closings in March 2009. That's the highest amount of resale closings in a month.....EVER! That's EVER as in "We have NEVER had that many closings in any 30 day period since Poinciana was established in 1973".
Folks this is huge. Inventory is down and sales are way up. This is actually right in line with what you hear on the National news.
But let's look a little closer. Of the 152 sales last month, 121 were either REOs or Short Sales. That's 80%.
Of the 385 closings thus far for 2009, 315 were distressed properties. That's 82%.
In December 2008 the average home sale was for $85,023. In March 2009 it was $70,620!! So, even though inventory is way down and sales are at an all time high, values have still declined by 17% in Q1 2009.
Why is that? Usually declining inventory and increased sales cause prices to go up. Well that would be true except.......80% of the sales are distressed properties. Lenders and pre-foreclosure Sellers are not concerned with maximizing price they are concerned with selling their property quickly. The way to do that is to be the best priced property on the market.
In order to be the best priced property on the market listing agents keep "leap frogging" their listings ahead of the others. If you price your listing at $50,000 I'm going to price mine at $49,000 and so on and so on. Make sense?
I did further research today to try and find out when the absolute peak of the market was in Poinciana Florida. I found it. It was May 2006. In May 2006 there were 102 sales in the Poinciana neighborhoods. Of these there were NO distressed sales. The average price was $220,206 or $136.28 per sq ft.
The average price for March 2009 was $70,620 or $41.24 per sq ft. Folks that's a decrease of 70% since the peak of the market a little less than 3 years ago.
What does all of this mean? It means that Poinciana is getting very, very close to hitting the bottom. If you are waiting for this......now is the time to start looking for a place to buy. Now I by no means believe prices will start going way up but I do believe they are going to level out and slowly start increasing. Don't wait too long to get back into the market.
So how's your market?
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That is great news for your market. I know a few other hard hit areas seem to be scraping along the bottom now. That's good news for all. If folks can't sell their homes in FL, they can't buy one here.
Our numbers in Orange/Seminole just came out this afternoon. As I thought, the numbers were very positive. I almost hate to call a bottom of the market, but I'm starting to believe that things have turned around.
BB, I think you are the one who is responsible, LOL. That is good news. I do our stats every week, but will look back per month. We have something like 360 plus homes on the market, with little moving. BUT, things are moving. Buyers are out there now, sales are happening.
Great news!
Bryant, that is a mixed bag of news, but lets look at the bright side, just a few months ago it would not have been a mixed bag, it would have been all bad.
Bryant,
George said it, it's a mixed bag.
But, the losses already occurred so the gross number of sales is the only new news and it's all good!
Celebrate what you can and go get as big a piece of the action as you can! It's a great time to buy in Poinciana!
Bill
It's good to hear that you are turning things around down there in Florida. What would they do without you?
That is great news. I know at least some people would be very happy.
Our market really picked up in March too, and April has been super busy ... hopefully a sign of better things to come.
And I know you're numero uno in Poinciana, so good for you. :)
BB - Lakeland has seen an increase since Jan.09 in sold homes as well as avg. sold prices. Although we did not peak, who knows when that is going to happen again, it was close to November sold numbers. As far as distressed properties, we are at 45% of total sales for March 09.
Our stats in southeast Florida in Miami-Dade County are similar for the month of March. Out of over 34,220 condos and houses, over 11,670 or 34% are short sale listings and 1,927 or 6% are REO listings. Out of 1,529 closed residential sales last month, 845 or 55% are REOs and another 178 or 12% are short sales, so 2/3 of our sales last month were distressed properties. At least they are selling. Have to check the percentage increase in sales. A good stat to have...
Bryant- That is good news. We have the same thing going on here and in Port St Lucie. This is a great time to buy. You are buying houses for less than 50% of what the replacement cost is! So you could not build a house for the price you can buy one for now! Now, that is a bargain!
OMG! That's incredible! I was expecting to read your report saying it was the highest percentage of sales ever in March. You sure surprised me. I hope a lot of those sales were yours. Congratulations!