What December giveth, January taketh away. As I last reported, December 2010 was a surprisingly strong sales month, but January 2011 was dismal. The Bay County Association of Realtors reported 88 sales of Single Family homes in January, with a total sales volume of just over 15 million dollars. This is the lowest sales volume since January of 2009. The total inventory of houses on the market continued it’s downward trend, to 1627, but the slow rate of sales bumped the “months of inventory” number up to 18.48. The median selling price county-wide was $145,000, the lowest in six years. The average price per square foot of heated and cooled square footage also hit a new long-term low, at $90. Average “days on market” was 166. 30 year fixed mortgage rates hovered around 4.8%, but started to spike above 5 at the end of the month. December’s unemployment figure stood at 11.6%.
January 2011 Market Update
I still think that one of the reasons for the decline in inventory is the slowdown in the rate of foreclosure filings. There were 97 auctions scheduled in January, and only 29 are scheduled for February. This may look like good news on the surface, but I think that there is a wave of yet-to-be-filed foreclosures that will break soon.