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.

Buyer activity remained above 2009 levels. There were 153 purchase agreements signed last week, representing a 10.9 percent increase over last year.

This combination of market activity helped to keep inventory levels lower than last year for the ninth consecutive week. The number of Active Listings for Sale was down 2.4 percent to 6,610 properties.

Based on July figures, sellers received an average of 90.6 percent of their original list price after about 114 days on the market. Median Sales Price stands at $130,000, and the Months Supply of Inventory metric remains fairly elevated at 12.8 months.

Buyer activity remained above 2009 levels, as it has for 29 out of the 33 full weeks this year. There were 146 purchase agreements signed last week, representing a whopping 36.4 percent increase over 2009.

This helped to keep inventory levels lower than last year for the eighth consecutive week. The number of Active Listings for Sale was down 3.6 percent to 6,559 properties. This marks the largest inventory decline in over a year (56 weeks to be exact).

Based on July figures, sellers received an average of 90.6 percent of their original list price after about 114 days on the market. Median Sales Price stands at $130,000, and the Months Supply of Inventory metric remains fairly elevated at 12.8 months.

Buyer activity remained above 2009 levels with 128 contracts written last week, representing a 7.6 percent increase.

This helped to keep inventory levels lower than last year for the seventh consecutive week. The number of Active Listings for Sale was down 3.5 percent to 6,553 properties.

Based on July figures, those sellers who are still waiting for an offer could expect to receive 90.8 percent of their list price and a market time of 114 days, though this number has been coming down in recent months. Median Sales Price remained at $132,000 taking into consideration overall market activity.

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