What is the average price compared to prior year? There have been no chicken littles on this forum. All the bears have been right on the money and the bulls have been dead wrong.
The sky hasn't stopped falling.
Would an ECAR affiliated agent care to publish that data here so we can graph it out and really see where we are headed?
Joe, I respect your view on things. You're a veteran on this board and everyone here respects your opinion, myself included. But come on, is inventory really dropping when you look at the data overall? Are prices really increasing? We both look at the hot sheets. When was the last time we noted a "+10" in a price change hot list? Also, I've published graphs here based on Josh's ECAR inventory data. Is inventory really dropping?
I guess you could call me a bull, as opposed to a bear, but I don't hide from the fact that inventory is still high, and many properties are not listed, as their owners know their property won't sell at the wishful price right now. Prices are down from historic highs in 2005. To not recognize that, one would be blind.
To keep the conversation on the same track, I'll use single family homes and areas 16-19, Inlet Beach to Mack Bayou. However, I will mention that if you look at Combined Residential (detached homes, attached homes, and condos) for all of South Walton, you will see that inventory has steadily decreased, and hasn't been this low since Feb 2006. That said, it still needs to come down. Looking specifically at single family homes and areas 16-19, Inlet Beach to Mack Bayou and comparing June 2008 to June 2007, inventory has decreased by 8%, from 1542 to 1409. Avg sales price appears to be down signicantly, but if you take out the extreme high sale of $7.8 million from 2007, it is right in line, and comparing it to year to date of 2008, which the avg sale price was $803,083, you will see that it is higher than the avg. So you tell me if it is going up or down. Yes, it is below last years single month sales avg for June, but it is in line with 2008 sales, and higher than 3 out of 5 previous months for 2008. A better way to look at these figures is through a 3-month moving average, if anyone wants to run those through a chart.
It is easy to say that we are up or down, depending on the comparisons used.
I will attach a small chart for the last 18 months for you to see the comparisons questioned.