After a (very) depressed three years, the housing market is showing signs of life in 2012.
When I clicked on the story and quickly scrolled to find the data, I saw that Oakland, California topped the list with an incredible 59.3 percent drop in home inventory in just one year!
Louisville sellers are happy that their homes are selling. But that also means fewer home options are available to buyers.
We must always remember that each market behaves differently, and cities in California that are now seeing homes fly off the shelf, at greatly reduced prices, I must add, once saw those same homes languish on the market for years at a time with very little activity.
Here in Louisville, our market follows the tortoise model from
The Tortoise and the Hare fable. From 1980 until 2008, Louisville homes saw an
average yearly appreciation of 4.40 percent. It was almost like clockwork.
For much of the last three decades, homes in Louisville appreciated about 4%. Then, we saw declining values begin in 2006 and bottom out in 2010.
There were signs in 2006 that things might be heading in the wrong direction, and values started to trail off. A market correction was coming, and by 2009 the recession was upon us.
- -0.29 percent in 2009
- -2.74 percent in 2010
- -0.61 percent in 2011
- -0.49 percent thru Q1 2012.
Pricing changes greatly affect housing inventory. The less perceived worth of the home, the less likely a homeowner will put it up for sale. Also, to a lesser extent, houses currently for sale are more likely to remain unsold.
Now back to the present, home sales are up, home prices are starting to return to pre-recession levels and we see that home inventory has begun to decline.
As of this moment, there are 4,607 homes for sale in Louisville. This time last year, there were 5,171 active listings, which means we’ve sold 10.9 percent of our inventory in the past 12 months.
This is a healthy modification, which should allow many homeowners who’ve been content to sit on the sidelines, to now get in the game.
As added incentive, there are signs that home prices are actually starting to rise. The median sold price for Louisville homes this July was $144,500. During July of last year it was $138,100.
