New Bern Home Sales year to date
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Today is March 1, 2014, and it is time to review home sales year to date and see how we are doing. Any guesses? The data below includes home sales in all of Craven County.
2014=131 homes sold
2013=149 homes sold
2012=104 homes sold
2011=122 homes sold
2010=117 homes sold
2009=121 homes sold
2008=173 homes sold
Although home sales are down from last year most of the difference was in new home sales. In 2013 there were 27 compared to 17 for 2014. If you recall from one an earlier blog, my prediction for 2014 was that new home construction would decrease slightly in 2014.
Some good news. I believe that the number of bank owned sales is a bell weather for the overall economy. Lets look at bank owned sales year to date. Again, I predicted earlier that this number will decrease for 2014. While the amount of bank owned sales has decreased, it is still way to high as a percentage of total sales. I believe the number of bank owned sales will decrease as we move on into spring and summer. I am hoping by the years end it will fall to to around 15% of total sales this year, and decrease to 12%-13% the following year..
2014=28 bank owned
2013=36 bank owned
I am talking to more retirees from the North East about buying a home than I have in a long time. This is probably a result of the extreme weather the Northeast has experienced this year as well as the weak economy which caused many to delay their retirement plans for several years and now they area ready to hit the road. This is a good sign and I believe this trend will continue. If it does look for custom home construction and remodeling to pick up. Most retirees tend to want newer construction, or at least homes that are in exceptional shape.
All in all not a bad report. Still a buyers market, but, inventory is the lowest I have seen it in many years. The home affordability index is perhaps the highest ever. The future is looking brighter.
Please feel free to share these reports with anyone in the housing industry.
Steve Tyson
3 comments:
What is % of owners that are still underwater or less than 5% equity? Craven existing home values haven't stopped declining since 2008. Even 2010 buyers have lost value. How many owners are now renting and hanging on by a thread?
Also it is frustrating to see the 'all cash' investor crowd drive up prices in the rest of the country, but this activity seems to be non existant in Craven. I guess the silver lining is that current New Bern prices are now very much in line with the median income. I do not believe they can fundamentally decline much more, if any. We need an RECOVERY in existing values to prevent more foreclosures.
I agree with the comment that prices should not decline any more and the evidence seems to support that right now.
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