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A major focus of this blog site, along with statistics about the Santa Fe NM residential real estate market, is something called an Absorption Rate. On the left side of the site pages you will see the list of spreadsheets and charts available for review. Four of those charts are specific to Absorption Rates and they are in four price categories: all prices and then each of three smaller categories.
What does it mean if your home is approximately in the middle of the price range of $500K to $1 million? What it means is that there is an absorption rate that may apply should you attempt to sell your home. The rate uses averages so is no more precise that throwing a dart at a board, but it is very instructive if understood and factored in to how your home is marketed.
First, the chart for that price range shows four columns; inventory of homes for sale – total homes sold in that range over the last 12 months – average number of homes sold per month – average number of months it would take to sell all of the inventory (from the first column). This set of calculations presumes that only those presently for sale will actually sell and no new listings will come along in the mean time. It is a diminishing return sort of number, even though in reality, homes are withdrawn from the market and newly listed homes show up all the time.
Looking at the fourth column, the number of months entry; this is the approximate number of months it will take for those homes to sell. Let us say you have a home in that range and it is for sale. If the months count is 10 for example, one out of 10 homes will sell each month for 10 months. Each month 10 percent fewer homes will be for sale because they would have sold. A key question to ask yourself at this moment of clarity is: in which month do you want your home to sell? Maybe you are highly motivated and want yours to sell in month one or month two. Next I recommend looking at the other homes for sale in your price range and positioning yours to compare favorably with the competition. If you have a fairly “normal” home and it should be worth about $700,000, what is the asking price? If its much more than maybe $735K, what are you doing? Are you hoping a buyer will come along that cannot tell the difference between your home and another one that might be priced just above $700K?
The charts and graphs and spreadsheets herein are for your use and education. You are always welcome to share, print and quote the content with appropriate attribution. If you think I am an idiot and want to share your criticism, please feel free to contact me and I will try to incorporate your suggestions. There may be no other site that will give you the depth and breadth of information that this site offers. If you know of one, please let me know so I can take a look. I do like knowing what the competition is publishing.
