2007 vs 2006

How did real estate sales in Montgomery County do in 2007 vs 2006? Not as bad as the rest of the country. For the purposes of this blog I will concentrate on single family residential unit sales. Yes, unit sales for this segment of the real estate industry were down in Montgomery County in 2007 vs 2006. County wide sales were down 4.15%. All four MLS areas comprising Montgomery were down. MLS area 39 was down the most, suffering a decline of 5.52%. MLS area 40 was down the least with a decline of only about one-third of one percent. Yet even with this decline, sales for 2007 were the second best on record. They were better than 2005.
How did average sales prices do? They went up. Even with a decline in sales the average sales price in each MLS area increased. And, get this, the average days on the market decreased also.
Amazing....sales decrease yet prices increase and days on the market decrease. Not exactly what is being portrayed by the national media.
Please remember that all real estate is local. What is happening in another part of the country is not necessarily happening here. In fact if you take a look at the top fifty markets in the US the Houston-Sugarland-Baytown MSA has a Risk Rank of 5 (the best ranking) and a Risk Index of <1 as published by PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. (More on what these mean next week.) These are great numbers for this areas real estate market.
Remember that Winston Churchill said "All we have to fear is fear itself". Is fear keeping you out of the real estate market right now? When you look at the numbers presented above is that fear really justified? Please make your decision based on local facts and not what the "bad news networks" are saying.
If you would like more information please send me an email. The weather looks great for this weekend so please have a great one. Cruise some neighborhoods, look at some homes and give me a call.
Ron