This information from the recent NABOR (Naples Area Board of Realtors) May 15, 2009 press release.
Headline: INVENTORY DECLINES 16 PERCENT for PROPERTIES OVER $300,000. Overall pending homes sales increase 87%.
NABOR tracks all Collier county sales excluding Marco Island.
In April of 2009 there were 5,905 properties on the market in this category. This is compared to one year ago where there were 7,088 properties available. How is this accounted for? It's a two part answer. First, month-after-month, we are selling more properties. I have been reporting this. Secondly, a number of properties drop out of this category due to price reductions.
With regard to the actual sale prices above $300,000 the median is just the same in April 2009 as it was in April of 2008 - $535,000. This equates to 50% of the properties sold in the above $300,000 category were less than $535,000 (but above $300,000) and 50% of the properties sold were above $535,000.
Perhaps the most important statistic, in my view, is the days-on-market (DOM) dropped 15% to 165 days. This means that properties are selling faster once listed further contributing to the decline in inventory.
There are two big "takeaways" from this. 1) At least some segments of the market are seeing stabilization. 2) Properties that once were priced over $300,000 are in a more affordable category - buy more for less.
