GOOD NEWS!! Overall single family home sales edged up for the month of June, 2010. According to the Houston Association of Realtors, home sales rose 2.9 percent from June 2009. All price points showed a gain with the exception of the $150,000-$250,000 market. Interestingly enough the most significant increase appeared among homes priced $500,000 or greater. “Sales of ALL property types combined climbed 4.1 percent in June on a year-over-year basis.” (HAR)
Believe it or not, according to a survey by Bankrate,Inc., ninety percent of homeowners do not regret buying their home . The nine percent that say they do regret their home purchase cite not being able to sell or having monthly mortgage payments beyond what they can afford as the reason for their discontent.
Months of Inventory Reports (months of inventory estimates the number of months it will take to deplete current active inventory based on the prior 12 months sales activity) on single family residences vary from area to area. Area 15 (area south of the San Jacinto River bridge including the Woodlands) wins the prize for only have 7.5 months of inventory. Area 39 (West of I-45 to Montgomery, Magnolia, etc.), has 10.8 months of inventory. Area 19 (east of I-45 to Cleveland & north of San Jacinto River Bridge) has 9.1 months of inventory. Area 40 (southeast Montgomery County) has 10.3 months of inventory. Included in these reports are prices from $100,000 to $1,000,000.
How do we go about depleting this inventory? Through sales of course! More than 85% of buyers find their home on the internet.
Many times I have indicated that the internet is where the marketing pays off. Internet stats are out for June 2010. This will blow your mind! Over one and a half BILLION-Yes BILLION folks visited HAR sites in JUNE, 2010. Average time spent visiting the site was 9:31 minutes.
With overall consumer confidence up, low interest rates sales will increase this last half of the year. Average sales prices are also showing a slight increase. Real estate is taking an ever so slight rise and is certainly a welcome sight.
Just want to touch on some “housing myths” that are spreading via e-mail. One such myth is that there is pending legislation regarding an energy bill that would “require home sellers to obtain an energy audit to make energy retrofits before they can sell their home”. Truth is, the bill includes “a provision that requires new construction to be energy-labeled but prohibits states from requiring new ratings when the house is resold.” The second myth is that the health care bill contains a 4 percent transfer tax on home sales. In reality, the bill “imposes a 3.8 percent Medicare tax for some high-income households that have ‘net investment income’. The tax will go into effect in 2013, applies only to households with adjusted gross income of more than $250,000 for couples or $200,000 for individuals.
All in all, the future is truly bright here in Texas and Montgomery County.
