Doug's Real Estate Thoughts For February

February 8, 2011

Happy Valentine’s Day! And here’s hoping you have been able to dig out of the never-ending snow that keeps pounding the northeast. Fortunately (or unfortunately according to some), the Vineyard has been spared the 16-20 inch snows that have been common “across the pond”. We have our share of 2-4 inch accumulations that melt and freeze into ice rinks in our driveways, but right now we are a balmy 40 degrees and all signs of a “white” winter are gone.

The market has been a little roller coaster like this winter as many buyers seem to be staying home and not traveling to the Vineyard for real estate shopping. But those who do travel here have been buying!

There were 27 sales in January with a median price of $650,000(up $100,000 from last January) and an average market time of 218 days (down from 285 a year ago)…both good signs! Of these 27 sales, 3 were bank related (foreclosure) sales and 4 sales were over $3 million dollars…one of which was the Cronkite estate that brought a whopping $11.3M!

There are presently 41 properties “under agreement” that will close in the next 60-90 days +/-. Current inventory is still high with approximately 500 properties for sale. This number will be increasing as we approach spring.

These statistics, once again, tell me that the real estate market on the Vineyard is stabilizing.