JANUARY REAL ESTATE ACTIVITY IN SUSSEX COUNTY

Finally, a solid closing month.  January 2012 finished 31% ahead of January 2011 in terms of Single Family Home (SFH) properties closed with 119 vs. 91 respectively.  Inventory ticked up only slightly from year end 2011, up 6 tenths of 1% or 2,659 SFHs actively listed.  Properties under contract at the end of January were up also from 305 at the end of December 2011 to 332.  There is one amazing fact however, and that is that the average closing price of a SFH in January was $244,000.  I went back into my records as far as I have them (2005) and found only two other months where the avg. closing price dropped below $300K, one was March of last year where it dropped to $282K and one was back in 2009 (also January) where it dropped to $280K.  I have noticed since the first of the year, many closings of SFHs under $100K.  I don't know if these are investors buying up fixer-upper properties,if it's first time home buyers, people who have been renting and can now afford to buy or all of the above.  I'm sure this low average is due more to the fact that cheaper homes are being bought rather than just price declines.  It also means that the "higher end" buyers are sitting it out right now.  Just to gain perspective, the avg. closing price of all of last year was $343,428 or almost 30% higher.  Also, Sellers got only 90.8% of their asking price at time of contract.  The average for 2011 was 92.2.  Interest rates for a 30 year fixed are under 4%.  That's money with a hat on it.

Condo/Towns (C/Ts) - came in ahead of last year also by 12.2% or 46 closings reported vs. only 41 last January.  Inventory crept up 2.2% from year end to 924 active listings reported to our MLS.  Under Contract went up a little also to 122 properties.  The average closing price of a C/T was actually significantly higher than SFHs at $281K.  Sellers got 93.3% of their asking price.  So all-in-all we're off to a pretty good start to 2012.

As always, if you have any questions or want more information regarding this material please contact me directly by phone or email.  Remember, these figures are calculated daily through my analysis of the Sussex County MLS and are totally dependant on the accuracy thereof.  Many Builders do not report sales to this MLS nor do For Sale By Owners.  Also, our MLS service allows some other Counties to input data to ours and I try hard to make sure those numbers don't get into my analysis.  Actual closing dates may not coincide with mine exactly as some agents take longer than others to load closings into the MLS.  I report daily so my cut off is the last day of the month/year.  If they report several days later, it will show up in my data for the next month/year.  This analysis is intended to be used directionally, not literally.