Tucson Real Estate Blogs » Tucson Real Estate Preliminary Home Sale Report September 2007

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Douglas Trudeau , Assoc. Broker
Prudential Foothills Real Estate
64 N. Harrison Road, Suite 160
Tucson , AZ 85748
Mobile: 520-954-2209
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Tucson Real Estate Preliminary Home Sale Report September 2007

Tucson real estate sales for the month of September dropped lower than they have been in over 10 years. In 1996 home sales were 623, the following year they jumped to 728. The September 2007 reported real estate sales in and around Tucson was only 683. Much lower than anyone could predict. I fully anticipated between 800 to 900 sales for the month. The beginning and middle of September seemed to point in that direction.

Sales always slow down a little going into the fall. Of course those of us in the real estate industry in Tucson expect a slight from for September as we do every year. This is the first September, however, since 2002 that sales have been below 1,000 for this month. Add to the frustration for home sellers the fact that there are over 9,148 homes for sale and we are looking at an all time high of 13.65 months of inventory. What does that mean?

If not one more home came on the market it would take nearly 14 months to sell off all the homes that are currently on the market. That’s 6.80% of the homes are selling. Another way Less than 7 out of every 100 homes on the market is selling. In Buyers Wanted - September 2007 Tucson Home Sales Below Averages I showed buyers how they can safely buy in this type of market.

Mortgages are harder to get for those who have questionable questionable. In Mortgage Problems Hamper Home Sales the author comments about the national challenges buyers are running into when getting home loans. In July we saw American Mortgage take a dive. That impacted the Tucson market by nearly 20% drop in sales. August brought the collapse of Fist Magnus. Drop another 15%. Consumer confidence, stricter lender requirements, sky falling reports and sales take a serious hit. It all boils down to perception. Buyers who could buy are not buying homes out of fear all over the nation. Tucson is feeling the impact more in the past three months than we have since the 1980’s. There will be recovery, its a matter of when?

The buyer pool in heading toward a drought. Yet, some sellers are still insisting on a set price for their home. Others a putting their homes on the market without needing to. Both of which make it more difficult for home sellers who need to sell. Its a dog eat dog world out there in the real estate world for home sellers. Those who hold on to biased interpretation of the market are finding themselves making more mortgage payments on their home than they anticipated.

Add to the formula the media reports that do nothing for buyer confidence. I don’t have evidence to prove it, but, its not hard to suspect that buyers are waiting out the market to see what’s going to happen. What does this mean to home sellers? Buyers want to see even lower prices. Buyers are not going to pay more than what they feel their home will be worth in six to twelve months. Buyers are going to be more cautious about what they are willing to pay.

By removing those homes from the market that do not need to be sold the balance between sales and inventory. Bank owned properties are on an increase as are short sales. Which is a separate topic.

The Tucson Association of Realtors official report will be out mid month as usual. It will be interesting to see how results are reported.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 8:56 am and is filed under Tucson Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.