Greater Albuquerque NM Market Update August 2010

Market Fluctuations Continue

A Matter of Perspective

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NAR: Existing Home Sales Move Up in August . . . RANM: New Mexico Home Sales Hold Steady in August: Median price Drops.

I write my August Market Update against the backdrop of the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) and the REALTORS’S Association of New Mexico (RANM) headlines as presented by the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors (GAAR)for the same period. Can all our accounts be true and have validity. Absolutely! NAR gives a national perspective. RANM gives a state perspective and my report gives a local area perspective. Quarterly, I drill down to prepare a neighborhood perspective for my neighborhood civic association. When I prepare pre-sale reports for clients, I drill down even further to compare subsets of similar homes within a neighborhood.

Most important to keep in mind when reading reports, is that real estate is local and that what is true for one area may not be so for another even as what is true for one house on a neighborhood street is not for another that is  built identically. While it is important to pay attention to what is happening nationally and even internationally, we must be aware of the trends and peculiarities of markets where we live.

Greater Albuquerque Area

The August market report reflects continuing fluctuations in inventory, sales and prices as the housing market seeks to rebalance and recover. Active listings have increased; pending sales, closed sales as well as median sale price of single-family detached homes are all down. Average sale price remains in positive territory at 4.44 percent above that of August 2009 and days on the market decreased from an average of 80 last August to 77, this year.

There are 8.68 percent more active listings than there were in August 2009. (August 2009 had 5,229 single-family detached homes on the market. and August 2010 had 5,759).

Pending sales continue to decrease and in August, were at 22.11 percent below the August 2009 count.

The median price of single-family detached homes unlike last month’s seemingly upward trend is down 1.88 percent from one year ago; having decreased from $186,000 to $182,500.

August sales fell throughout all of the Greater Albuquerque Southwest Multiple Listing Service areas except Corrales. Albuquerque (the most densely populated area) sold 357 detached single-family homes and 42 attached (condos and townhomes). Rio Rancho sold 99, Corrales sold 8, Bernalillo sold 2, Placitas 4, East Mountains 15, and Valencia County: 26.

(Courtesy, the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors.