The last Quarter of 2011 is upon us. What might we expect in the real estate market? I’m seeing a lot of price reductions as home sellers hope to get their home in contract this month. I’ve seen homes priced in the $200′s reduce their price by $20- 30K. The decreases are even heftier for higher priced homes. With interest rates hovering around 4%, if you’re ready to buy, now may be the time to act. Doing so will mean you can be in your new home by the holidays.
I pulled the numbers from the Columbus Board of Realtors® MLS system for seasonal sales for just the Olentangy school district area of southern Delaware County. I suspect other areas might be similar.
This first chart shows the average price of the homes sold Jan-Sep (green bars) vs Oct-Dec (orange bars) since 2006. It really illustrates the severity the downturn in the housing market had on prices. 2010 was propped up somewhat by the Gov’t Tax Credits which may have allowed buyers to afford slightly higher priced homes. Of course, 2011 has been a crazy year, so it appears buyers became a little more conservative with their spending.

Click graph to enlarge
Same type of info but the chart below illustrates the NUMBER of homes sold. The small percentage of homes sold in the 4th Qtr is the reason I’m seeing so many price reductions now as home sellers hope to get their home in-contract during October, knowing there is less chance of that happening during the holiday months of Nov-Dec or the snow months of Jan-Feb.

Click graph to enlarge
As for the number of homes currently for sale in the Olentangy area, there are 601 homes with an average price of $429,153. (Houston, we have a $100K problem!) Of those homes that are currently in-contract today, there are 135 with an average price of $348,618, which is closer to the average price of the homes sold so far this year. Historically, around 200 homes have been sold in the fall period so it’s likely there will be some disappointed sellers. Perhaps it’s time to sharpen the pencil.
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