Lake Norman Real Estate’s February 2010 Sales Analysis

Lake Norman’s February 2010 Single Family Housing Statistics

 Just as I thought, our February Lake Norman home sales were nearly flat when compared to 2009.  After four consecutive months of substantial increases in our Lake Norman home sales, February is serving as a wake-up call; reminding us that hear in Lake Norman, as opposed to other areas in the country,we are far from being out of the woods when it comes to our housing market.

• Active Listings dropped 17% from a year ago.  While any drop in inventory is good news in this market, our inventory seems to have stabilized when compared to last month.   I have noticed a number of active listings being withdrawn from the market or being allowed to expire. Are these going to become part of our “shadow’” inventory and reappear as actives as soon as there is more confidence in our housing market?   Right now, based upon our February sales, we are back up to a 27.1 month supply of active listings.  This is not good news. Remember that 6-8 months of supply is considered a balanced housing market.

• Contingent Sales remain very low.  These are the homes under contract that are contingent upon the buyer’s home selling.  Clearly, Lake Norman sellers are much  less willing to accept contingent offers than they were last year. 

• Conditional Sales increased 123%!  These are homes that  just went under contract and still have financial and inspection conditions. Homebuyers were definitely out looking and buying in February. This would seem to bode well for our March sales being at least a little higher than February’s.

• Pending sales are a healthy 23% above last year.    These are the contracts that are past inspections and are just waiting to close.  These are a good indication of future sales and substantiate that our March closed sales should exceed February’s and perhaps even those of March 2009.

• The number of closed sales were almost flat with a 4% increase over 2009.  Our four consecutive months of increases has ended, at least temporarily.  Note that our average sales price increased by 7% and the average days on market dropped by 6%.  This does not mean our prices are increasing.  Rather, it means that our higher priced listing sales are improving. Because of the nature of our Lake Norman housing market, we really can’t use the average sales price to determine if our prices are increasing or decreasing because our inventory ranges from under $100,000 to $5 million.  Our average prices vary with the price range that is selling.  One or two $million plus sales can skew our average prices substantially.

6-Year Comparison of Lake Norman Home Sales By Month

* Please note that all of my numbers come from the Charlotte Region Multiple Listing Service and will not include sales that took place outside of our MLS.

**I have made an adjustment of  the totals reflecting the ACTUAL  sales  every month in 2009 and 2010 and the totals in the prior calendar year.  The columns may not add up but I do my best with what I have to work with!

Summary

Our February home sales were actually rather disappointing.  The next few months are going to be critical.  We are entering our best season for home sales in our Lake Norman communities.  If we don’t see a substantial jump in the number of home sales, then it may be 2011 before we can expect to see signs of our recovery.

Lake Norman Relocation Resources

Before buying a Lake Norman Waterfront Home, See it by Boat!

Lake Norman Real Estate: How Walkable is Your Neighborhood?

Lake Norman Real Estate:  What Does the Closing Attorney Do?

Lake Norman Real Estate’s Waterfront Home Sales Analysis December 2009

Lake Norman Real Estate: Are Foreclosures Driving Our Market?

Lake Norman Real Estate:  Why is it so hard to buy a home right now