September Market Statistics

The middle of the month is when I regularly update my statistics for the health of the real estate market in Washtenaw County, so here's my analysis for September 2007.

The Ann Arbor market continues to be a strong "Buyer's Market". We have tested our market lows for percent pending (the percent of homes where the sellers have accepted an offer) at 9% in September (as compared with October, 2006). If we have truly hit our market lows for this year, then we will have established a strong base for the market. We'll have to watch this figure closely.

For those who are more detail oriented, here's the actual raw data from September, 2007 that makes up the chart you see above.

By price range, I keep track of the number of homes available, and the number of homes "pending" (where the sellers have accepted an offer).

What you see on the chart is the overall percent pending for the Ann Arbor market, which is at 9% for the month of September.

You'll also see that I keep track of the number of homes sold in the past 30 days in each price range. That helps me to keep track of how much inventory of homes we really have. Overall for September, you'll see that we have a 7 month inventory for Ann Arbor.

Since there are 870 homes available for sale in Ann Arbor at this time, and it's a strong buyer's market, consider adding an investment property to your portfolio. It's an easy time to buy right now.

I found a fascinating article at the Wall Street Journal about how easy it is to shop online for a home in the United States. Here's a quote from the article that I found most interesting:

But when you look at how real estate is listed and sold around the world, Denmark's system is the rule; the U.S. is the exception. It's not that American brokers don't want to control information on sales and price trends; it's simply that they can't. In the U.S, such information comes from public sources, like tax records and Census data, and is readily available online to anyone who wants to build a better Web site, as both Zillow and Trulia have done. In most other countries, such information flows far less freely and openly

Something to keep in mind as you're searching the web for your next home.