What’s The Real Estate Market Doing?

Do you ever wonder how our real estate market is here in Des Moines? Unfortunately, we spend a lot of time listening to how rough things are in other cities around the country, but too often we don’t really consider what our real estate climate is like.

I’m a fan of having as much information available before I take action on any big decisions. I don’t know about you, but I think buying or selling a home is a pretty big deal.

As a blogger and mortgage professional, when I receive good information – I pass it on. Home listings and sales are an interesting set of information most of us don’t have super easy access to. Thankfully, I have a Realtor that hammers me with e-mails (Just kidding, I don’t mind them) on market updates and her opinion on where things are at.

Do YOU Need Help?

As a mortgage professional, I cannot sell real estate.  I can however help you connect with a Realtor.  If you are looking for some answers, I’d be happy to introduce you to someone who can help!  No question is silly or too off the wall.

I can also reach out to my connections throughout the country if you’re looking for real estate outside of Iowa.  So please, feel free to contact us, we’d love to help!

Why Should You Care About Statistics?

Whether you’re looking to purchase, sell or refinance a home – this stuff matters. These statistics are compiled from the Multiple Listing Service and cover the Des Moines, Iowa residential real estate market.

With her permission, I post the facts here so you can come up with your very own market opinion. Here’s this week’s market commentary:

“Well we survived the worst snowfall in how many years, but as you can see by our sale pending market the real estate market here in Des Moines was a little slow last week.  With some extra time on my hands I started looking into the overall performance of the real estate market in 2009 over previous years.  Since 2006 our sales numbers here in Des Moines have fallen each year.  2009 will be the first year that we have seen an increase over the previous year.  So far in 2009 we have sold 8130 homes which is just a tad bit better than the 8111 home that were sold in 2008.    Currently we have an additional 897 homes under contract some of which will close yet in 2009.  Granted this increase isn’t huge over last year, but it is an increase and I will take that!
 
Another element of the real estate market that I found very interesting this year was foreclosures.  We hear about them everyday on the news, but just how many foreclosures have sold here in Iowa?  In 2009 so far there have been 1088 sales which is about 13% of the sales in 2009.  In 2008 there were just 747 foreclosure homes sold.  These numbers don’t even take into consideration short sales which probably account for a few hundred more sales each year.  My prediction for 2010 is that this foreclosure number will continue to increase because banks still have alot of shadow inventory (foreclosures that banks have but are holding off the market) and slowly this inventory will become active inventory.”

–Heather Barglof, RE/MAX Real Estate Concepts

What Does This Report Cover?

I really enjoy this chart because it gives a breakdown of:

• Days on the Market
• Price Per Square Foot
• Number of New Listings
• Number of Expired Listings
• Number of Price Reductions
• Pending Home Sales (by price)
• New Home Sales (by price)
• All Active Home Sales (by price)
• Best of all, it compares this week vs. last week and last year!

This is a great chart.  I’m not a Realtor and would never try to take the place of one.  If you’re looking for statistics in your specific neighborhood (because your neighborhood is the only one that matters when you’re selling), I can help connect you with the right Realtor for the job!

We Love Great Information and Love to Give Great Information!

If you’re a super cool person and have any market statistics you think our readers would find valuable, please feel free to contact me. If it’s relevant, It’ll show up here!

If you’re looking for my professional opinion or looking for a comment (press related), please contact me here.

Tagged as: Foreclosure, foreclosures