A couple of weeks ago the U.S. Government announced we have officially been in a recession since December 2007. We are sure that does not seem like a surprise to many people.  And while the headlines continue to reflect poor economic news on many fronts our local Westside real estate markets are weathering the storm better than most of the national stories you are reading and hearing in the media.

The average median sales price for the year for all our local Westside real estate markets is $1,049,272. This compares to $1,184,372 for the same time period  in 2007. This is a decrease of 11.2% in overall prices so far in 2008.  Digging a little deeper you will see that most of the price declines are coming in homes under $1,000,000 and over $5,000,000. The segment of the market between $1,000,000 and $5,000,000 is virtually unchanged for the year in terms of price.

On the surface these numbers look very strong to what one might expect given all the negative reports that have been in the news. Yet it is crucial to note that prices have been steadily declining since June, inventory has been building in homes priced over a million dollars and the time it takes to sell a home has also been increasing.

Here are some other interesting facts to consider:

Year over year 2008 vs. 2007 the number of homes sold in our West Los Angeles area has declined by 30%. This correlates almost perfectly with the fact that 30% less buyers are qualifying for loans in today’s market as compared to the market before the whole Countrywide Mortgage meltdown began in August 2006.

In terms of the length of time it takes to sell a home here are the facts:
Year to date it has taken 75 days on average to sell a home as compared to 66 days in 2007. 35% of the listings that sell, sell within the first 30 days of being listed. This number is down from 40+% earlier in the year. On the other hand, 22% of the listings that sell are taking 120 days or longer.

Click on the link below to download our report & statistics:

NOVEMBER 2008 Micro Market Report

NOVEMBER 2008 Micro Market Report – Condominiums

Filed under: Industry and Economic News, Micro Market Updates on January 23rd, 2009