The monthly Case-Shiller housing study came out recently and was quoted extensively by the national press. If you believed those media folks who get totally excited by getting to report negative news, the whole country continues to sag in a real estate bust. Of course, they don’t focus on the fact that the report addresses only 20 areas of the country. Guess what? It’s a big country, and we all don’t look the same. Makes me think of the national weather reporter who tells you that today it’s going to rain. Wouldn’t you want to get a bit more specific info before grabbing your umbrella?
Jim Gillespie is head of Coldwell Banker, and often writes about real estate in a way that puts some perspective on our market that’s useful to individual buyers and sellers as opposed to the broad brush comments of most national commentators. Check out his comments HERE in the Coldwell Banker Blog “Blue Matters.”
For more specific local (Charlotte area) real estate sales news, here’s a reprint of the month sales activity report for May from the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association.
Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association reports residential real estate monthly activity for May 2011
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association reports on the residential
real estate market in this region based on Carolina Multiple Listing Services, Inc. (CMLS)
data. The number of closings for May 2011 (2,194) decreased 11.5 percent compared
to May 2010 when closings totaled 2,480. Compared to April 2011 (1,882), closings
were up 16.6 percent. The average sales price for May 2011 ($208,999) was up slightly,
0.6 percent, compared to May 2010 ($207,711), and was up 2.7 percent compared to
the April 2011 average sales price ($203,480). The median sales price in May 2011
($151,995) was down 3.2 percent compared to the May 2010 median sales price of
$157,000, and was down 0.7 percent compared to the April 2011 median sales price of
$153,000.
The average listing price in May 2011 ($257,971) increased 2.2 percent from last May’s
average listing price of $252,446, and was down 2 percent from the April 2011 average
listing price of $257,486. The residential pending contracts figure for May 2011 (2,240)
was up 13.5 percent compared to May 2010 (1,974). This figure increased 1.8 percent
compared to April 2011, when pending contracts totaled 2,200.
New residential listings in May 2011 totaled 4,139. The average number of days a
property was on the market from the time it was listed until it closed (list to close) was
150, which is four days less than last month.
In April 2011, CMLS began using a new reporting tool to create reports. To report the
most up-to-date figures each month, the tool is constantly “updating history,” instead of
freezing the data once it’s reported. Therefore, with each new month of reporting, there
could be slight variances in what was reported in the previous month as transactions are
updated and adjustments made within the MLS system.
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For more residential-housing market statistics, visit the association’s website at
http://www.CarolinaHome.com and click on “Community Data.” For an interview with 2011
association/CMLS President Laurie Knudsen, please contact Kim Walker.
The Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association is a trade association that leads, educates and
equips members to be productive. It provides more than 6,700 Realtor® members with the
resources and services needed to conduct ethical, professional, successful and profitable
businesses. The association is dedicated to being the region’s primary resource for residential
real estate information. The association operates the Carolina Multiple Listing Services, Inc.
(CMLS), which has approximately 7,500 Subscribers and is the private cooperative Realtors® use
for access to tens of thousands of residential listings in a 10-county service area, including the
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