If you have ever been on the receiving end of one of my emails, you know it’s never quick or short. I don’t expect this entry to be any different.
We are a little behind on posting commentary on the local market. The end of Nov stats came out about 2 weeks ago and here are some of the highlights.
For the city of Peoria, new homes coming on the market were identical to the same period in 2013, closed sales were up 3.4% to 1,441 for the year, average sales price of $133K was up 8% compared to 2013 and days on market were down a little, from 87 days to 81 days, a decrease of 6.7%. So…overall-sales were up a little as well as the selling price. For the month of Nov however sales were off 15%, from 100 sales in Nov 2013 compared to Nov 2014. Dec will probably be about the same.
For the Dunlap area, sales were off just a little, about 3.6% which equates to 190 sale year to date (ytd) compared to 197 last year. However-if you account for some sales in “Edwards” which is partly in Dunlap, sales in Edwards were up 12.7%, so overall, sales were pretty consistent in Dunlap this year. Average selling price was up 5.1% to $318K, but days on market was up 34.7%, from 60 days to 84 days. The month of Nov was really off for Dunlap compared to Nov 2013, from 13 sales down to 4 sales (a decrease of 69%). Average days on market in Nov however were down also, from 73 days to 62 days.
Washington…well, it has been about a year since the tornado caused a lot of chaos there. Sales in Nov were up 25% compared to last Nov…25 sales compared to 20 sales. Year to date sales are off 18% which is understandable considering everything they have been going through the last 12 months, but there were still 285 sales in 2014 compared to 349 in 2013 through the end of Nov. Days on market is low…57 days this year compared to 77 days last year…which makes sense. Lower inventory means quicker days on market.
In Morton, sales were off 17.9% compared to 2013, average selling price was up 7.5% to $208K and average days on market were down to 57 days from 61 days, which was a decrease of 6.6%.
A quick note about average selling prices. It might be easy to look at the average selling price of a community and think that it relates exactly to a value or not a value. While there may be some truth in that, the larger truth is the volume and number of homes for sale in each community. For example, in the Dunlap area there are 30 homes for sale above $400K, in Morton there are 6, in Washington there are 10.
The Dec year in stats will be pretty telling for the year, more so than this Nov update. For that reason, I’ll hold back some commentary for a more detailed review of the year until that report is finished, which should be around mid to late Jan, 2015.
A quick summary (see-I told you it would be long in getting to the point) is that overall, the number of homes that went pending in Nov were down 26.1%, which will likely equate to a lower number of homes closing this Dec and Jan. The supply of homes for sale however is also low. I think it is a great time, despite the weather, to get your home on the market now. The inventory is going to start to swing the other direction as most of Washington is reaching the re-built phase and builders will turn their attention back to spec homes rather than presold homes. 
