Active listings continue to go down, a trend we’ve been experiencing all year.  We anticipate this trend to continue into October and November as first time home buyers take advantage of the tax credit.

Here are the highlights from the 3^rd Quarter Summary:

• Total unit sales up 39.48% over 1^st Qtr
• Average median sales price down 1.71% over 1^st Qtr
• Average sales price down 3.80% over 1^st Qtr
• Average active listings down 19.99$% over 1^st Qtr
• Average days on market slightly down with YTD average 80 days
• Pending contracts up 4.63% over last month
• Pending contracts increased 9/08 to 9/08 59.45%

Click here for the full report, including comprehensive charts and graphs.  If you are considering selling your home at this time, I’d suggest looking at the Active/Sold by Zip Code chart at the bottom of page 2.  This is telling, in that you can calculate months of inventory by dividing #Active by #Sold.  For example, in the 85712 zip code there were 158 active listings and only 19 sold in September.  19 into 158 equals a little over 8 months of inventory.  19 divided by 158 equals 12 (%) of the inventory sold in a month.  If you want your home to sell quickly, you will need to price, market and stage it so that it will beat the competition.  How can you position your home to be in the small percentage of homes sold versus the larger group of unsold properties?

Denise McCreary

What NOT to do…

I have been in contact with an acquaintance who had acquired the job of acting as trustee in the sale of a friend’s home.  The friend had passed on and was survived by 2 adult children, one of whom was living in the home.  The home is in a decent central foothills neighborhood.  There are luxury neighborhoods within the vicinity.  It was adapted for the handicapped and has a pool.  The home has a mortgage, and the surviving children can’t afford to make the payments, so selling it is a necessity.  My friend had contacted me and asked me provide some comps, so naturally I began to assume that I would be hired as the agent to sell the home.  I provided the information and followed up.

The trustee decided, because it was necessary to net the most from the sale of the home, to list it with a discount brokerage and price it nearly $30,000 above market.  The firm it’s listed with is merely a website and MLS listing service.  It has a contractor’s lockbox instead of an MLS lockbox for entry, requiring any agent to show it to call the trustee for the code.   

As if this scenario weren’t bad enough, recent statistic reveal there are currently 33 months of inventory in the home’s zip code area.

This home has been on the market (so far) for 90 days

Denise