Real Estate Breakdown

An unincorporated community in Santa Cruz, the community of Aptos, California, has seen, like many cities across the nation, a dent put into its housing market over the past two years. With the onset of the recession across the U.S. home prices here, like elsewhere, fell, while foreclosures rose and inventory began stockpiling.

Because Aptos is a rather small community, it can be difficult to extrapolate reliable information from its housing statistics. For example, at the end of the year in December 2009, according to the Santa Cruz Association of Realtors information, the average and median price of home sold was $525,000. Upon further scrutiny, however, we can see that there was only one home sold in December – for a price of $525,000. Meanwhile, there were two new homes listed in December for a total of five homes on the market, with each home spending an average of 4.8 months listed before being sold.

Looking back to November, statistics show that there were two Aptos homes for sale closed upon, with an average and median price of $456,000. During that month, there were seven homes on the market, spending an average of just 2.6 months listed before selling.

Some earlier statistics from November of 2008 show that despite the minimal information, the Aptos real estate has improved since the worst days during the crisis. In November 2008, there was one closed home sale, which had a price of almost $238,000, much lower than the prices seen in the last few months of 2009. Based on this information, it would be logical to say the market has seen its bottom and is now on its way back up.

The second largest area in Indiana, Fort Wayne lies in the state’s northeastern corner. The state has been hard hit by the larger U.S. recession, shedding thousands of jobs and putting many homeowners at risk of foreclosure. Meanwhile, other homeowners have seen the values of their houses fall, leaving many upside-down on their mortgages. But recently things in the Fort Wayne real estate housing market, at least, have shown signs of improvement.

According to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, assessed property values had fallen in nine of the county’s 20 districts this year. Nine more districts saw values rise less than 2%.  But sales have been up in the city. During November, the city saw a massive 54% increase in sales volume, from 397 to 612. Much of the increased volume can be attributed to buyers looking to take advantage of a recently extended government program that offers tax rebates up to $8,000 to qualified home buyers.

And unlike in many cities nationwide, real estate in Fort Wayne actually saw a bump up in its housing prices, a real reason for optimism that the market is improving. In November, the median price of a home sold was $92,700, up 9% from $84,900 last year. Additionally, the average price was up to $101,073 from $94,880, a 6.5% increase. Despite all the good news in November, however, the average days homes for sale in Fort Wayne spent on the market before closing was up in November – to 115 from just 104 last year, a 10% increase.

Though November showed significant signs of improvement, according to the Fort Wayne Area Association of Realtor’s data, the total for 2009 remains relatively steady compared with data from 2008, despite a few months of increased activity and sales prices. The total number of homes sold to date in 2009 is actually down 1.8% from 2008 at the same time. Prices are up, but just by 0.3% for average and 1.4% for median. It remains to be seen whether December’s figures can be positive enough to help 2009′s total outdo 2008.

Despite the expectation for Tucson to have one of the top 10 home appreciation rates in the nation, most real estate experts believe that still won’t be enough to prove a successful recovery of the Tucson real estate market, given the high foreclosure rates that continue to plague Tucson, Arizona.  Although the extension of the federal government’s home buyer’s tax credit helped to encourage some prospective home buyers to invest in real estate in Tucson, the number is still insignificant and won’t be enough to reduce the large and still increasing inventory of foreclosed homes.  Furthermore, experts say that despite consumer’s enthusiasm in the Tucson real estate, people still aren’t willing to pay big bucks for a new house, making it difficult for median home prices to increase to previous years’ levels.

According to AzBiz.com, real estate experts worry that the continuing increase in high foreclosure rates and recent declines in home permits suggests that the Tucson real estate market will not be showing any signs of consistent or significant recovery in the near future.  Some experts project that given the current struggles the market is experiencing, the real estate in Tucson could take about three more years to fully recover.  In October of 2009, Tucson posted that 30.6 of all house and condo sales as of the beginning of this year were sales made on previously foreclosed homes.  Tucson real estate sources also reported that about 40 percent of home buyer’s stated that the new home buyer’s federal tax credit enticed them to make a home purchase, but experts are quick to admit that those numbers still aren’t enough to help the real estate make a rebound.  The average sales price in Tucson is $188,670.

However, the Phoenix Business Journal reported a slightly more optimistic view of the real estate in Tucson, stating that real estate experts throughout the nation predict Tucson to have one of the top ten markets for home appreciation during the next 12 months.  Nevertheless, Tucson real estate experts still say that the Tucson real estate market will most likely not see any full recovery until 2011 or even 2012.