Of winter’s lifeless world each tree
Now seems a perfect part;
Yet each one holds summer’s secret
Deep down within its heart.
~ Charles G. Stater
The days are short – but NOW getting longer. Jack Frost is nipping at more than just your nose. The holidays are in full swing, we’re about to begin another new year. The Dubuque Multiple Listing Service is seeing a drop off in the level of activity, and that’s fairly normal. When folks attention turns to cold weather, snow, ice, and the flutter of family activities the holidays bring, you can’t fault most folks for not paying a lot of attention to the local real estate market.
Available Dubuque real estate inventory falls once again, this time to a scant 4.8 month supply of homes for purchase. After reaching as high as 7.0 months supply for a few days in the summer, the winter solstice sees us back to an inventory low we’ve not seen since last winter. Again, this is quite normal. Once the new year starts gaining momentum, I’m very confident we’ll see the supply number increase once gain. In fact, I expect inventory to increase a a pace slightly faster than the typical springtime gain.
With the home buyer credit extended to April 30th, 2010, a wise home seller will want to be on the market at least before that crucial date so as to possibly attract one of those buyers inventivized by the tax credit. I’m not sure exactly how many new Dubuque sellers and buyers that will bring to the market that haven’t already been there. November’s numbers were outstanding, due in large part to folks jumping into the market out of fear that the credit was not going to be extended past November 30th, 2009. We’ll have to monitor our numbers closely as we move along in 2010.
Dubuque Listings Inventory Analysis
Current Total Listings: 387 ( – 29 )
Active/Available Listings: 310 ( – 16 )
Pending Sold Listings: 77 ( – 13 ) or 19.9 % of Current Market ( – 1.7% )
Dubuque Sales Previous 12 Months: 774 ( + 20 ) or 64.5 Homes Sold per month ( + 1.7 )
Supply of Homes: 4.8 Month Supply ( – 0.4 )
Percentage Selling Per Month: 20.8% ( + 1.5% )
Click to Enlarge
_____________________________________________________________________
Dubuque Year to Date Sales & Averages
2009 YTD: 764 Sales – Average Price $155,230 ( + 4.8% ) – Mean Sales Price $138,000
2008 YTD: 724 Sales – Average Price $148,133 ( – 1.8% ) – Mean Sales Price $130,000
2007 YTD: 922 Sales – Average Price $150,855 ( + 3.4% ) – Mean Sales Price $129,000
2006 YTD: 1009 Sales – Average Price $145,876 ( + 4.6% ) – Mean Sales Price $125,000
2005 YTD: 924 Sales – Average Price $139,449 ( + 9.1% ) – Mean Sales Price $121,125
Click to Enlarge
Click to Enlarge