What does your market look like today?

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So many experts, so little consensus…  If one agrees the phrase “All Real Estate is Local” is mostly true, then comparing
our market to other markets might reveal some disparities. Some think Santa Fe real estate’s recovery  is lagging the rest of the country. What do you think?
Nationally, many areas have a shortage of inventory of homes, which feeds the concept of a seller’s market. In some cities, prices are rising again (like the good old days we may not want to return to?) and buyers are having to scramble to secure the home they want. A balanced market would be good, if only it were that easy.

What is happening here? There still seems a disconnect between seller’s ideas of value and ultimate sales prices agreed to. Plenty of examples exist of starting prices around 10% above final sales prices. What is concerning is the length of time those sellers take to realize they are not participating in the market conversation about their home. Then they lower the price and there is a flurry of buyer interest.

The delay between listing a home and selling it creates (at least) two statistics, one of which I feature in this blog. The Santa Fe Association of Realtors has a huge database with thousands of records of listings, sales, expired listings and so on. For our market area, there are some 101,000 different records. The focus of this blog is Absorption Rate, while our MLS database features Average Days on Market.

The differences are clear. For the 12 month period ending November 30, 2015, there were 1979 sales of homes in Santa Fe city and county. The MLS database will tell you the average days on market for all of those was 164 days. Yet an absorption rate analysis tells us that it is taking 7.8 months for all of those listings to sell. In “days speak”, that is about 234. And both are correct.

The gap between the two numbers has shrunk lately, for the good of all. But if the true absorption rate is understated by some 42% by the use of the database calculation labeled Days On Market, ask your real estate professional to give you the actual picture of where the market is. And where it is heading…

For more about this or any other residential real estate information for Santa Fe, NM please contact me, Alan Ball at 505-470-7153 or by email at AlanBall2@KW.com

(an updated post)

Posted in Posts & Updates, Santa Fe area real estate, Statistical Data - Santa Fe real estate market, Uncategorized and tagged , , .

The writer is a 68 year-old young man engaged as an active REALTOR (associate broker) with Keller Williams, in real estate sales and management in the Santa Fe NM market area. My career has been in and around the real estate industry for more than 35 years, ranging from mortgage lending (interim, commercial, residential); residential property management and leasing; shopping center development and leasing; real estate sales; sales training; title insurance as an executive and an escrow officer; various management positions; consulting and other related activities. That plus a bunch of banking experience including our family-owned Bank of Santa Fe in the 1980s. Where has the time gone?
My background means you have my working knowledge of the entire transaction process at your disposal. That comes with honesty and no bullshit.