Sad To See 2013 End

 2074

To fully appreciate the 2013 Real Estate market in Bloomington-Normal, you need to understand it from my perspective. As you probably already figured out from reading previous Blog's of mine, I'm a statistic geek!!!

Numbers matter to me. Important numbers like 56 (Joe Demaggio's hit streak), 18 (Jack Nicklaus Major's Championships in golf), 51 (Peyton Manning TD passes in a season) and nearest and dearest to my heart 2074 (the most homes sold in Bloomington-Normal).

No ESPN won't cover it. It won't be on 60 Minutes. It probably won't even be mentioned in the local newspaper. 2074...2074....2074 ah it means so much. You see in the early 2000's the Bloomington-Normal housing market had a record year followed by a record year. This ended in 2006. When the dust settled that year, the final sales count for 2006 was 2074 in Bloomington-Normal.

We in the Real Estate industry, had very little idea what was going to happen in 2007, with the fall of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac disaster. Home sales dropped. And dropped. And dropped again. Agents left the business. Builders closed up shop. Developers filed for bankruptcy.  This happened all over, even in Bloomington. We saw signs of stabilization beginning in 2011 and 2012.

But then came 2013.... As I write this Blog on December 27, 2013 we have closed 2048 homes year to date in Bloomington-Normal. This leaves us 26 closings from the record. We have today, Monday and Tuesday to close 26 more homes in Bloomington-Normal. Typically, the last few days of the month are the most popular closing days.

So I'm saying there's a chance to top 2074. I'm saying there's a great chance. Will we do it?....TBD but I promise you if you keep reading my Blog...you'll know.


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Feeling Sorry For The Bloomington-Normal Real Estate Market?

by John Armstrong

Are you concerned with the news that November of 2013 sales declined from November 2012 in the Bloomington area housing market?  Yes November's sales dropped 6% vs. November 2012.  Also, 10% more homes were listed in the Bloomington area during November vs. November 2012.

Does declining sales + rising inventory = Potential Problems for The Bloomington Area?

 From the outside, I can see how that could be the perception.  It's basic economics... lower demand and rising supply. Many of our friends and neighbors are relocating to other parts of the country. Before you jump to any conclusions, let's talk about where we are in the Bloomington and where we have been...

Those of you who listen to my weekly Real Estate radio show "On The House" (every Saturday at 8:00 on Cities 92.9fm), hear me frequently refer to how a market is behaving based on 2 facts. 1-How many homes are on the market? 2-How many sold in the last 30 days?

As I write my Blog on this cold Monday morning, we have 674 homes on the market in Bloomington-Normal.  In the previous 30 days we have had 80 go pending in BloNo. 
That gives us about a 8 month supply of homes for sale in Bloomington-Normal.

I know what your thinking....8 months supply sounds like a lot. In what the Real Estate Industry typically considers a balanced market (meaning not a seller's or buyer's market) is 5 to 6 months.
So yes on December 15, 2013, the over all market is in a sellers market.  Keep in mind we spent much of 2008 and 2009 with 12-14 months supply of homes for sale.

November '13 was the 1st drop in month vs. month sales since November '12 was bested by November '11.  We saw some large month vs month increases throughout 2013.

In the chart below, you will see a breakdown of how the Bloomington Area market is now, not just Bloomington-Normal but the entire area (current 3 months),  has compared to the previous 3 months and 6 month period before that.  Notice how hot the market was in June-August, 2.4 months supply!!!  26 median days on the market. The market was smoking hot...

 


History has shown us the 4th quarter in Real Estate is the slowest quarter.  Did I mention it's cold? Don't feel sorry for slow down in the BloNo area housing market...this gives me a chance to Blog!!!!