August 5, 2013

 

August 1^st brought us cooler temperatures, lower humidity levels and lots of summer visitors.  And with all these visitors, I have only one question, “Where are all the buyers?”

The real estate market on Martha’s Vineyard is not living up to my “hopes and predictions”.  The number of property viewings has dwindled to just a few each week. For example, last week I had 3 showings of the 28 homes I have for sale and none of these were above the $600,000 price range!  The only explanation I have for this comes from Dave Liniger, founder/owner of RE/MAX international, whom I had recently had an opportunity to “skype” with.   He says that the second/resort home market historically lags 12-18 months behind a “jump” in the primary home market and if you are following the national real estate market, areas like Las Vegas and Boston are seeing double digit growth and multiple offers on many homes.  So it appears as though we are in a “wait and see” scenario for Vineyard real estate.

There were 25 residential sales in June (avg. price $805K and median price $600K) compared to 35 sales in July 2013 (avg. price $938K and median price $540K) and compared to 26 sales in July 2012 (avg. price $827K and median price $562K).  So, the average price is DOWN (14%) from last month and DOWN (3%) from the same month a year ago. The median price is “UP” (11%) when comparing month over month and UP (7%) compared to July 2012.  The average “Days on Market” in July is down to 220 days, from 283 last month and from 274 in July 2012.  Again, as last month, the numbers mixed with the lone positive being the increase in median price.  As mentioned above, the lack of current buyer interest tells me that we are in a bit of a slump.

As with last month, let us look only at the prices and days on market when comparing YTD totals.   The YTD (2013) average price is $886K and median price is $570K compared to 2012 YTD sales with $931K avg. price and $535K median price.  These numbers show the average price declined (by 5%) while the median price is up (by 7%).  These numbers mimic what we saw last month.  Average days on market is 307 for YTD 2013, up 21% from YTD 2012.

Lastly, interest rates have ticked up a bit again (many 30 year rates are over 4.5%) which will help those buyers who are “sitting on the fence” jump into the market.  We have some new lenders offering incentives for the “Jumbo” loans (those over $417K so hopefully we can entice some buyers to take advantage of these programs.  On a similar note, one local lender is offering 100% financing to any Dukes County municipal employees (teachers, medical profession, social service providers, etc), so I hope to see some buyer take advantage of this opportunity.

Please let me know any questions you might have about how this prediction affects your property. As always, I appreciate your trust and patience in what I do.  All the best in real estate and otherwise.

 

Doug Reece                                                                            

Certified Residential Specialist®,

Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist®

Accredited Buyers Agent®