The Year In Review

What a year we had in 2007. The first half of the year was a definite improvement over 2006 as far as the number of listings that were selling. By all early indicators 2006 was going to be the bottom of the market and we were on our way up. Inventory was shrinking monthly and was 20-25% below 2006 levels. Each month we were selling the exact same or slightly more than we did in the same month in 2006. So our number of sales rose slightly in the first half but our percentage of listings sold rose noticeably.
All that came to an abrupt end in July when the sub prime mess rose it’s ugly head. Inventory spiked, sales dropped, contracts fell out, lenders disappeared and consumer confidence hit rock bottom.
By October though the shock had worn off and our number of single family home sales came back into line with last years numbers although townhomes were still down by 25-30%. This is based on Centreville stats only. This varies by county and varies within the county. (We post all the stats monthly on our web site so you can review by area by visiting www.seln4u.com.)
The average LIST PRICE for ALL single family homes sold in CENTREVILLE in 2007 dropped to 602,293 from 663,621 in 2006. For ALL townhomes it dropped to 366,140 in 2007 from 391,827 in 2006. The total number of townhomes that came under contract in 2007 dropped to 648 from 826 in 2006 and 1,278 in 2005. The number of single family homes that came under contract actually increased to 279, up from 271 in 2006 but down from 434 in 2005.
The average number of single family homes that were available on the market in 2007 dropped (this is a good thing) to 151 from 172 in 2006 but still was almost double 2005’s number of 78. Townhomes did not fair quite as well averaging 274 active listings in any given month in 2007, down from 293 in 2006 but more than double the 127 in 2005. The real disparity comes in how we begin the year in 2008. With single family homes we are starting the year with 128 active listings up only slightly from the 118 of 2007 and 112 of 2006. Townhomes however are starting with 255 active listings compared with 153 in 2007 and 170 in 2006. This is primarily due to the changes in mortgage lending and availability of no money down loans and a higher percentage of foreclosures than in single family homes. Again these numbers are for Centreville only and we will not have the overall Northern Virginia Stats available until next issue. We will post them on our website as soon as we have the information properly formatted.
Overall 2007 will go down as the 4th best year on record at the NVAR and while it did not seem like it the only reason for that was that it is compared to 2003-2005. We sold all of the homes we listed (excluding those we still have on the market) and our days on market averaged just under 41. As this year unfolds we will continue to keep you informed.