The morning temperatures dropped about ten degrees over the weekend, to about 60°. So the weekend was really wonderful. It seems that the cooler trend is continuing this week, as is the rain. I can’t recall a summer in the last twelve years that has been so wet. It seems to me that this kind of summer was the norm about twenty years ago, but it has been much drier here for at least the past ten years.
Both the national and local data points to 2012 being the first real year of recovery in the real estate market. According to the national numbers, we’ve had eleven straight months of unit recovery, with four months of positive price trending. New home starts were up 16% year-over-year in June, and the serious delinquency rate has dropped below 3%. Locally, we have seen some new activity in terms of home building, and the number of active listings continues to decline. Our median sold price in the entire MLS was higher in June than it has been in a year, at about $120,000 (including lots and land sales). So our locally observed trends mirror the national picture.
What it all means is that we are expecting a good fall selling season, traditionally our biggest period for both cabin and land sales. If you are thinking of putting your property on the market – or thinking of putting it back on the market – now is the time. I tell all my prospective sellers that we want to have everything wrapped up by mid-September, so the property is on the market in time for the buyer activity that we will see in October and November. In a normal year, we will sell strongly through Thanksgiving, and for as long after Thanksgiving as the weather remains good. We are beginning to worry a little about not having enough good inventory to meet demand, a problem that we haven’t had for some time. So … if you are thinking of selling, you won’t want to miss the coming fall season.