I won’t lie, I’m a numbers freak. I love numbers, they tell me everything I need to know (and things I don’t EVER want to know). I’m asked all the time: “How’s the market?”, “Should I sell now or wait?”, “I’m I going to lose money on my house?”, etc….
If you’ve been thinking about buying or selling a home, hopefully these facts and figures will paint a clearer picture for you! Or at least will make you completely confused! 🙂
These stats are derived from information that was obtained from the Waco MLS system. These statistics are for properties that are only classified as “residential” and do NOT include manufactured housing.
Hopefully, you can get an idea of where the real estate market in the Waco area has been, is, and where it’s headed.
In 2010:
– 1,941 homes were sold
– 3,551 homes were listed
Analysis:
This means that roughly 54% of homes that are listed are sold. Wow! Alot of agents, when doing their budgets for a new year, will account for 65% of their listings going to closing. This is an 11% drop from what some agents consider a “base” sold ratio.
Now, some of these homes may have actually been listed in 2009, but sold in 2010. There are two figures that I’m working with here… solds and new listings. I was curious as to how many homes sold in a year (without regard to their listed date) compared to how many were listed in a year.
Now, if we ONLY look at those 3,551 homes that were listed in 2010:
– 1,325 were sold the same year:
This represents at 37.31% sold ratio. By contrast, in 2007, the sold ratio (for homes listed AND sold in the same year) was 66.97%!! (with that being said, about 1,100 MORE homes were listed in 2010 than 2007. Don’t know why yet, I’ll have to do some research).
The average days on market for these sold listings was 88 (keep in mind though, that these days are market also include the time needed for escrow).
35.6% needed a price reduction
The average sold price is $132,838
– 856 are still active:
Out of these 856 homes, the average days on market is 188 (these days on market do NOT include time needed for escrow, as they are still active).
47.9% of these active listings have had at least one price reduction
The average current asking price for these active listings is $176,884
Analysis:
there a couple of ways you can read these numbers, really.
First, you can see that there’s a big difference between what people are currently asking for their homes and what people are buying. This does NOT mean that a house that’s on the market right now at $176,884 will sell for $132,838! What this means… is that buyers (right now) are NOT shopping for the more expensive homes. If you do happen to have a more expensive home, you may need to price it more aggressively than a few years ago, Simply because the “buyer pool” (according to the numbers) is smaller for higher priced homes than homes priced in the $130s.
The smaller buyer pool for homes above $170K doesn’t surprise me. With the tightening of banks, the new regulations, increased credit score requirements, etc… It’s harder for buyers to get a loan today than it was 4 years ago.
Another way to look at these numbers… make sure you get the price right from the start! The homes that were listed in 2010 and sold in 2010 had very short days on market compared to the homes that haven’t sold. A smaller number of those homes had to have a price reduction too!
Alot of people think (and it’s a myth), that they need to price a home higher so they have wiggle room for negotiations. this causes your home to sit on the market longer (and ultimately get a lower price for it). The first 30 days of a new listing is CRUCIAL – That’s the “hot time” for a home fresh on the market. The last thing you want to do is price it too high and knockout any potential buyers that might otherwise be interested in looking at your house. The higher the price (above true market value) means that more buyers WON’T see it. If you price your home right – at the beginning of your listing period, you’ll appeal to a greater range of buyers – which is your goal, to get as many people into your home to look and hopefully put an offer on it!
This does NOT mean price your home “cheap”, it just means price it at it’s true market value – from the start.
-Over 1,000 homes listed in 2010, were classified as “expired” or “withdrawn”!
This means they sat on the market and didn’t sell! Now, it’s possible that some of those listings have been relisted by another agent (probably at a lower price too).
In the grand scheme of things, in 2010, 450 less homes were sold than in 2007. Although, this represents a drop in sales, buyers are still “out there”. They’re price sensitive right now and they have a lot of choices, but with correct pricing and successful marketing, you can get your home sold (and in a timely manner)!
If you need specific statistics compiled for your home, neighborhood, or situation, give us a call and we’ll be glad to get you what you need!
