Lake Norman Real Estate: 3rd Quarter Sales Analysis

It probably does not surprise you that the Lake Norman real estate market is still feeling the affects of our serious national economic challenges as well as the struggling housing markets throughout the U.S. both emotionally and statistically.

To give you some real examples, I currently have about 20 extremely well-qualified buyers relocating to the Lake Norman area from throughout the country ranging in price from the $200,000’s up to $5 million. About one third are waiting for their homes to sell before they purchase their Lake Norman home but plan to move here as soon as possible once their home sells. The rest of my buyers are able to buy at anytime. They are either in the final stages of deciding whether to buy a home in Lake Norman or they are waiting to see signs that our market has hit bottom and/or the U.S economy has stabilized.

It is very important for everyone in the Lake Norman area, whether business owners or home owners, to understand that we have a very strong pipeline of future buyers and people planning to relocate here. Our future is truly very bright, we just have to be patient!

IMPORTANT FINDINGS

• Active Listings dropped slightly from our second quarter but still represent a 19.9 months of supply of homes for sale when factoring in our current number of home sales per month. Our number of homes for sale is 23% higher than one year ago.

• We have 96 pending sales at this time versus 154 at this same time in 2007. This 38% drop indicates a continuing slowdown for the near future at least.

• The number of Lake Norman homes sold in the past three months dropped 39% when compared to the 3rd quarter of 2007.

• The 19.9 months of supply of homes for sale is more than double our 2007 number of 8.4 months of supply of inventory at the end of the third quarter.

3rd QUARTER LAKE NORMAN HOME SALES BY PRICE RANGE

*All statistics are computed using data from the Charlotte Regional Multiple Listing Service

This chart is extremely useful to both Lake Norman home buyers AND home sellers as it enables you to focus on your own price range and size up the competition, the strengths and weaknesses, and trends that help to better position you to make an offer based on facts or determine a listing price that will generate the most showings and a quicker sale.

For example: If you are listing your home and it is valued at about $400,000, it would be much better to price it in the high $300,000’s than in the low $400,000s. Why? Because 46 homes in the $300,000’s sold last quarter and there are currently 233 homes for sale in the $300,000’s compared to only 35 homes that sold in the $400,000s and 265 homes currently for sale. Wouldn’t you rather be in a price range where there are more sales and less competition?

Home buyers can also use this chart when determining where the greatest values are and what price range might provide the best opportunity for you to get a better “deal”. Let’s say you can go as high as $800,000. You might want to look at homes in the mid $800,000’s as well as the $700,000’s because the homes in the $800,000’s are taking much longer to sell and there is a 34.3 months of supply of homes for sale. These numbers indicate that this is a very slow price range and sellers may be willing to come down further on their sales price.

The good news: 63.6% of all Lake Norman home sales last quarter were under $500,000 compared to 70% last quarter. While our higher priced home sales are still struggling far more than the lower price ranges, the Lake Norman luxury home market has improved slightly as has our average sales price.

My advice? Sellers, price your home to sell, even if that means below the last sale in your neighborhood…don’t “chase” the market down by starting high and then having to do numerous price reductions. Homes that are priced properly are selling. The rule of thumb is that if you aren’t getting showings, especially second showings then chances are your home is priced too high or it is not “staged” to be in move-in condition.

Buyers, prices are coming down. Builders as sitting on too much inventory and are motivated to sell. Homeowners who have to move are motivated to sell. Do your homework and you will find some great values in our Lake Norman real estate market!

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