I expect the same or higher figures for the fourth quarter both nationwide and locally.

We saw a 5% increase in the number of residential home sales in May with 302 and a total volume of $58,854,739.  This represents an increase of 15% in volume.  The average sales price was up as well about 10%.

These number are encouraging.  From what I am seeing June and July are looking to be up as well.

Lets hope it continues!

North Hamilton County led the areas in total number of sales with 33 transactions for a total of $5, 465,250.

For the week ending December 11, the 156 signed purchase agreements made for a 73.3 percent increase over last year. This is the fifth week out of the last six that have shown an increase.

On the seller side, New Listings continued to decline from last year. The 166 new homes for the most recent week marked a 7.3 percent decline from last year’s level. This was the 18th of the last 20 weeks of year-over-year declines in seller activity.

It should be noted that homes are taking slightly longer to sell. The November 2010 Average Days on Market of 131 is a 13.3 percent increase over November 2009.

New Listings dropped to 187 homes added to the market for the week ending October 23 and is down 22.4 percent compared to last year. The mix of buyer activity and new listings has brought the number of Active Listings for Sale down 10.5 percent from last year to 5,930 homes. Months’ Supply of Inventory was down by 12.2 percent from last year at 12.9 months.

It remains a strong buyer’s market and housing affordability for the region is at a historical high.

MEDIAN PRICE AND TIME ON MARKET ALSO DROP

The local real estate market remained sluggish during the past month, according to statistics released Monday, in the number of homes sold. The statistics for median price and average number of days on the market also decreased, according to data released by the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) of the Chattanooga Association of REALTORS®. In September of this year, Southeast Tennessee and the Northwest Georgia area saw the sale of 441 residential units, an 8.1% decrease compared to the previous month’s sales, and a drop of 14.2% from the same month in 2009.

Local REALTORS® Association President, Randy Durham said that the Greater Chattanooga area is holding its own, compared to the dire situation that confronts much of the rest of the U.S. market. “I agree with many of the experts that the rest of 2010 will not see any dramatic improvement here, or elsewhere,” he said. “Our attention is focused on seeing a gradual and incremental improvement that becomes apparent by late Spring of next year.” But he added, “What concerns me a great deal in this environment is the foreclosure picture that is very alarming. Almost a third of our existing home sales are from foreclosures, and it appears that they are continuing to trend upward in that respect. Obviously, that represents an issue that will have to be addressed by lawmakers and regulators very soon. However, I feel confident that we can continue to sell these homes on a free and open market, and the public should not fear that there will be a glut of unsold foreclosures as long as we can continue to find willing buyers”.

For the month of September, the local median home price was $125,000, representing a decrease of 6.2% from August, and 3.8% from the same period one year earlier.

In terms of the number of average days on the local market, September 2010 saw a small decrease of four days over figures from the previous month, and 22 days from August 2009.

©2010 Chattanooga Association of REALTORS® Used by permission.

Pending Sales had a huge jump over last year, up 139.7 percent. Since there were 175 actual units sold this percentage change this looks quite dramatic, but 102 more sales than last year is nothing to sneeze at.

Buyers have also had a fair amount of success at the closing table, as seen in the decreases in the Percent of Original and Last List Price Received at sale metrics. They were down 3.2 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively. Prices held their ground as the Median Sales Price was dead-even with last September at $129,900.

With the increase in buyer activity and decrease in seller activity, the number of Active Listings for Sale fell 7.6 percent to 6,093 homes. This has also helped the Days on Market and Months Supply of Inventory metrics. Market times clocked in at 112 days, a decrease of 13.2 percent; while Months Supply decreased 12.6 percent from last year to arrive at 12.9 months.