Adventures in Real Estate

January was quite a month! Of snow that is! It is going to be very challenging comparing this January to January 2009 or to even guage how this market is progressing so far this year! We received three weekends of snow in January that made it very difficult for prospetive Buyers to view available inventory. The weather also made it hard for Sellers to list their homes. While new listings and pending sales were not what we had expected, days on market, available inventory and percent of original list price received at sale were all very promising!

Stafford County January 2009 January 2010 Year to Date

New listings 226 205 -9.3%
Closed Sales 97 88 -9.3%
Pending Sales 165 141 -14.5%
Median Sales Price $232,000 $229,500 -1.1%
% of Orig List Price at Sale 87.7% 96.7% +10.3%
Average Days on Market 143 67 -52.9%
Single Family Inventory 715 497 -30.5%
Townhouse Inventory 187 66 -64.7%

One of the most impressive changes is the 10% increase in the amount of money Sellers are receiving from their offers. Buyers are having to give much better offers or even compete in multiple offer situations to secure the home of their dreams! Inventory has decreased substantially making homes in convenient locations, in good condition and priced well, highly sought after. It will be interesting to see if the decreased inventory is due to Sellers not listing during the horrible weather of January, or if our inventory has shrunk that much! Stay tuned!