The River to Shore Group at Page Taft Real Living
I’ve admittedly missed doing our newsletter the past couple months. Two storms and the aftermath from them left us spending way more time doing things that are normally easy if one has internet and telephone. Even when we got our services back, many people we were working with did not and thus every closing and issues associated with them merely made the process slow to a snails pace.
We did not lay down though. We had much success in negotiating new deals and closing the ones we had in the pipeline - more on that below.
When it comes to the numbers for the 3rd quarter, we held our own. It’s not enough to make up for the huge losses of the 1st and 2nd quarter, but it’s nice to see some black numbers on the bottom line...but that’s just barely.
When I isolated single family home sales in the 23 towns I track along the CT Shoreline and Lower CT River Valley, I note a 4.32% gain in the number of closing across all price points. That however is challenged by a quarter point loss in sales volumes indicating that the homes sold this year had a lower median price point which was exacerbated by a decline in values overall. The average days on market to sell a home remains largely unchanged at between and 4 and 6 months. While it’s possible to sell a home in much less time, we’ve done so 3 times since the last newsletter in 37 days or less and one in 7 days from time of contract to closing, a first for both brokers. Lyme is back at the top of the scale at an average of 296 days on market and East Haven boasts the shortest at 83 days.
When we look at the November numbers we find a similar trend developing in the fourth quarter of an increase in closing and lower median price points. Closings are up 7.58% from last year while the sales volume is down 7.60%. However, what will hopefully continue to encourage closings is the all time low interests rates - for good credit as low as 3.75%.
River To Shore Happenings
I’ll begin by sharing that last year we sold 37 homes. Not bad considering the economy and housing market here. This year we set our goal to 50 homes. Aggressive for sure, however, you need to set your sites on realistic but challenging goals to get to where you want to be.
Here’s where we’re at at this juncture. Our year-to-date totals have us besting our last years transaction result by a solid 12 homes for a total of 4 (we’ve closed already on 34 and have 12 in the queue in process). We’re delighted that we can boast this gain in another year of decline. Add to that, we’re negotiating on 2 of our listings for our sellers and 2 more deals for our buyers. We’re working hard to get things done for our valued clients and love every minute of it.
Shadow Inventory for our Closest Counties
We also want you to keep an eye on the Shadow Inventory which is made up of: 1) lender owned homes on the market, REO aka Real Estate Owned, meaning those homes that have been foreclosed on and are owned by the bank or private lender: and 2) lis penden homes, those in pre-foreclosure looking for short sale. Here's the latest grid we created for you:
