Welcome to the month of November. Thanksgiving is right around the corner. October was a very interesting month on many fronts. The lead up to this months election and the market turmoil did have an effect on the real estate market. While nothing fundamentally changed in this area, many people were sitting on the sidelines. Why? I’m not sure. There is money available, despite reports to the contrary. Many people with good credit scores are still getting mortgages. I know the Trident Group (our Prudential Fox and Roach affiliate businesses (mortgage, insurance, title) has been promoting this fact and my clients have not had issues. I do think the stock market drops affected peoples ability to take money out for down payments though.
Let’s look at what the numbers showed for October in Chester County.
At first glance the numbers are fairly steady. Median and Average Price is about the same and is even higher versus October, 2007. Days on Market for sold and homes recently under contract are also about the same. The two numbers that are down from last month and from last year are the number of solds and the number of listings under contract.
The number sold listings doesn’t surprise me too much. We saw the summer slowdown reduce the number of under contract homes and that was our future solds. Welcome to the future. With the exception of a recent client purchase that took less than 30 days, most home sales take 6 weeks or longer. So, depending on the various issues, a lot of the sales that occurred in July and August were probably this month’s sold listings.
The under contract listings, however, were sales that occurred in the month of October. These numbers were down fairly significantly. As I stated above, this was probably a lot of uncertainty as the markets fluctuated and the lead up to the election. What did this do to the Chester County absorption rate? Well it jumped from 10 to 15 months of inventory. That’s a pretty large jump an about a 47% increase (which is also the same increase compared to same time last year). As we come to the end of the “fall season” there will be a slow down as we hit Thanksgiving and then Christmas/New Years. These next 3 months are generally a slower cycle to begin with, but it doesn’t mean this is bad time to buy or sell.
If you would like get numbers for your area feel free to CONTACT ME with no obligation. I’d be happy to discuss it with you.
Related posts:
- West Chester Statistics for October, 2008
- Chester County Statistics for January 2009
- Chester County Statistics for September, 2008
- Chester County Statistics for June 2008
Article by John Lauber
My name is John Lauber and I'm a Realtor in Chester County, PA. I love living and working in this area as there is so much to do here. If you have any questions feel free to contact me. I'm happy to help.
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